Israeli officials lay cornerstone for new settlement on Palestinian land near Jenin
LONDON: Israeli ministers, members of the Knesset and other officials on Sunday laid the cornerstone for a new settlement, Emek Dotan, on land belonging to the Palestinian town of Arraba, southwest of Jenin in the occupied West Bank, local media reported.
Tareq Eghbariyeh, the Jenin Governorate’s settlement affairs official, told the Palestinian news agency WAFA that the project marked a significant escalation in Israeli settlement expansion and would further limit Palestinians’ access to their land.
He said the settlement appeared designed to create new facts on the ground and could increase pressure on Palestinian residents to leave their homes.
The project also violates international law, he said, and forms part of broader Israeli efforts to extend sovereignty over large areas of the West Bank, particularly in the north and in Jenin Governorate.
