Israel 'Set Settler Record' amid Peace Talks
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Israel promoted plans or approved tenders for nearly 14,000 new settler homes on occupied Palestinian land during the nine months of peace talks, an Israeli monitor group said as the negotiation period formally ended.
The Peace Now group said on Tuesday that the scale of the plans for East Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank was "unprecedented", with prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government approving the equivalent of about 50 new homes a day, or about 1,500 a month.
According to Peace Now's figures, there were on average about 1,385 settler homes approved during Netanyahu's first government, while an average of 1,389 a year were approved under the government of Ehud Olmert.
"Netanyahu broke construction records during the nine-month peace talks," Yariv Oppenheimer, the head of Peace Now, told AFP.
All Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian territory are illegal under international law.
Palestinians had wanted a complete settlement freeze as a fundamental condition of resuming talks. Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, rejected the notion that settlement building ran counter to peace efforts.
The Peace Now report was released on the same day a US-imposed deadline expired for progress on Israeli-Palestinian talks.
Israel last week suspended negotiations with Palestinian leaders after Hamas, which controls the West Bank, agreed to form a unity government with the West Bank-based Fatah.
However, their progress had stuttered ever since their relaunch last year by the US secretary of state, John Kerry.
Also on Tuesday, Reuters reported that Israeli forces had demolished several structures, including a mosque, in a Palestinian village.
A Reuters correspondent witnessed several hundred soldiers deployed in Khirbet al-Taweel, in the occupied West Bank, around dawn.
