Israel has approved expropriation of 380 acres of West Bank agricultural lands south of the Palestinian city of Jericho, Israel's Army Radio reported Wednesday.
The ambassador added the USA administration remains "perplexed" due to the current administration's "settlement policy" and warned there must be an implementation of the "two-state solution" to prevent a binational state.
Palestinian leaders and their supporters are criticizing Airbnb for allowing West Bank settlement homeowners to lease their homes as vacation rentals through the website.
The Palestinians will submit a resolution on Israeli settlements to the U.N. Security Council "very soon", Saeb Erekat, the secretary-general of the Palestine Liberation Organization and chief Palestinian negotiator, tells Newsweek.
Be Civil - It's OK to have a difference in opinion but there's no need to be a jerk.
Human Rights Watch urges states to "avoid offsetting the costs of Israeli government expenditures on settlements by withholding funding given to the Israeli government in an amount equivalent to its expenditures on settlements and related infrastructure in the West Bank". We can safely assume that what he said had been vetted by the State Department, perhaps also by the White House. The government's decision is another step on the way to destroy the possibility for a two-state solution.
While Sunday's killing was part of a months-long wave of violence, it was the first inside a Jewish settlement home in the occupied West Bank and triggered fears that the unrest was worsening and that Israel would impose a harsh security crackdown on Palestinians.
The demolitions and confiscation of European Union funded projects refer to instances where Israel has removed illegal Palestinian structures in Judea and Samaria that were financed by the EU.
The military ordered Palestinian labourers to leave their workplaces in some settlements as the violence spread from streets and bus stops in the West Bank and Israel to within the usually well-protected Israeli enclaves.
Palestinians say preventing workers from reaching West Bank settlements for jobs amounts to collective punishment.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement later rejecting Shapiro's comments, calling them "unacceptable and untrue". Israel says 101 of them have been attackers while the rest have been killed in clashes with Israeli troops.
The Israel defence ministry unit that oversees civilian affairs in the West Bank, known as COGAT, did not respond to requests for comment. The last talks between Israel and the Palestinians on a so-called "two-state solution" broke down in April 2014.
Aviv Bushinsky, former aide to Netanyahu turned media pundit on Israeli television, described Shapiro, who is Jewish, as "a little Jew boy" - using the disparaging Hebrew word "yehudon".
On the other hand, the father of the 15-year boy now arrested for having carried out the attack that killed the mother of six declared that he's proud of what his son had done.
Rafael Nadal shows more vulnerability in Aussie loss
He called it unfortunate that "the attention of the first Grand Slam of the year is more on that than the Australian Open ". After surrendering a 5-2 lead in the fourth set, he dug deep to win the tie-break and take the match the distance.
