The post Planning body gives final approval to controversial E1 West Bank settlement project appeared first on The Times of Israel.

Israel has given final approval for a controversial settlement project that could cut the occupied West Bank effectively in two.

An Israeli planning committee is set to debate approval of a highly contested settlement project in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, a move critics say could severely undermine prospects for a future Palestinian state.

Israeli finance minister directly links green-lighting 3,000 housing units in West Bank with killing two-state solution, days after western states said they would recognise Palestine

Israel’s far-right finance minister says a contentious new settlement construction in the Israeli-occupied West Bank is going ahead, a project that Palestinians and rights groups worry will scuttle plans for a future Palestinian state by effectively cutting the West Bank into two separate parts.

Israel's far-right finance minister announced approval of the construction of a contentious settlement in the Israeli-occupied West Bank that he says "buries the idea of a Palestinian state."

Tensions between Israeli settlers and Palestinians in the occupied West Bank continue to grow, amid plans from Israel's government to build thousands of new homes there.

Ministers in the Israeli government have in recent months pushed for more rapid development of these settlements, explicitly as a rebuke to claims of Palestinian sovereignty.

"They will talk about a Palestinian dream, and we will continue to build a Jewish reality," Israel's far-right finance minister said.