Saturday, April 1, 2017

Israel Says It Will Rein In ‘Footprint’ of West Bank Settlements





By ISABEL KERSHNER MARCH 31, 2017 JERUSALEM — A day after approving the construction of a new settlement in the West Bank for the first time in more than 20 years, Israel announced a new, if ambiguous, settlement policy on Friday “out of consideration for the positions of President Trump” and, it said, to enable progress in the peace process with Palestinians.

Israel said it was taking steps to “significantly rein in the footprint” of the settlements, allowing construction within all its existing settlements in the occupied West Bank but limiting, “wherever possible,” their expansion into new territory.

How the new policy might translate on the ground was largely left open to interpretation. The Palestinians, like most of the rest of the world, oppose any Israeli construction in the occupied territories.


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