Israel | PM OKs settlement building amid standoff with settlers

An Israeli settler sleeps in the Jewish settlement of Beit El after a night standoff with police

The Israeli Prime Minister’s office said yesterday it has approved the “immediate construction” of 300 housing units in the West Bank settlement of Beit El and has advanced plans for 504 new housing units in Israeli settlement areas in east Jerusalem.
The announcement came amid a standoff in Beit El, where Israeli settlers clashed with Israeli forces as authorities began to demolish a contested West Bank settlement housing complex there. Israel’s Supreme Court ruled yesterday that it must be demolished.
The Israeli government had fought the ruling and made efforts to legalize the complex, under construction without prior Israeli authorization. The Supreme Court rejected a petition to overturn the court’s initial ruling to demolish the complex, and ordered the demolition be completed by today.
The military has declared the complex a closed military zone and removed protesters holed up there.
Tempers are high among some in the settler community as it marks a decade since Israel’s “disengagement” from the Gaza Strip, when Israel in the summer of 2005 withdrew all its civilians and soldiers from all of the settlements there and in a number of West Bank settlements.
Israel initially promised to build the 300 housing units in Beit El three years ago, when Israel ordered the removal of other buildings constructed on private Palestinian land. Daniel Estrin, Jerusalem, AP