Benjamin Netanyahu, February 20, 2020, in front of the land of the future colonies of Har Homa. - DEBBIE HILL / AP / SIPA

With less than a week of elections key to his political survival, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday promised the construction of 3,500 settler housing in an area of ​​the occupied West Bank where Bedouins live.

"I gave immediate instructions to allow the deposit of plans for the construction of 3,500 units in zone E1", territory located at the exit of Jerusalem, said Benjamin Netanyahu. If Israel builds in this area between the Jewish settlement of Maalé Adoumim and Jerusalem, the West Bank will be cut in half, which would prevent the creation of a possible Palestinian state with territorial continuity, denounce the Palestinians and NGOs.

Winning votes among nationalists

"If the project goes ahead, it will put an end to the idea of ​​a viable Palestinian state," responded Angela Godfrey-Goldstein, co-director of the NGO Jahalin Solidarity, which defends the Bedouin families established in the E1 sector. "This is another example of how desperate Bibi [nickname of President Netanyahu] is to win votes (...)," she added. She also said she feared the displacement of many Bedouin families because of this building project, which is part of a series of announcements by the Prime Minister.

The Israeli Prime Minister openly woos the voters of the nationalist right and the pro-settlement movement in the hope of winning the legislative elections on Monday against his centrist rival Benny Gantz. These elections are all the more crucial for Benjamin Netanyahu since he must face, from mid-March, the justice system which accuses him of corruption, embezzlement, breach of trust in three cases.

An "attack" on the "viability" of the future Palestinian state

Benjamin Netanyahu had promised last week the construction of thousands of new housing in settlements in East Jerusalem, a project immediately denounced by the Palestinians and Western chancelleries. More specifically, the president had promised to add 2,200 dwellings in the colony of Har Homa, founded in 1997, and 3,000 dwellings for the "Jewish inhabitants" of the Givat Hamatos sector, also in Jerusalem.

"The expansion of these two settlements directly affects the viability of a future Palestinian state, as the European Union has repeatedly said," reacted the French consulate after Benjamin's announcement last week. Netanyahu. According to the Israeli NGO "Peace Now", which is closely following this sensitive issue, the authorities issued a first call for tenders on Monday for the construction of 1,000 colonization units in Givat Hamatos and will study plans for another on Thursday 1,000 new units in the West Bank.

600,000 settlers in the West Bank

The status of Jerusalem is one of the stumbling blocks of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Palestinians intending to make the eastern part of the city, annexed by Israel, the capital of their future state while the Israeli authorities consider the whole of the city as their capital. Today, more than 600,000 people live in settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The colonization of these territories, occupied since 1967 by Israel, has accelerated in recent years under the leadership of Benjamin Netanyahu and his ally in Washington, President Donald Trump.

The latter presented at the end of January a draft settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict which plans to make Jerusalem the "indivisible" capital of Israel and the annexation of the Jordan Valley and the more than 130 Israeli settlements in the West Bank. On Tuesday, new demonstrations, punctuated by tear gas and rubber bullets by the Israeli army, took place in Tubas, in the occupied West Bank, to denounce the Trump project and a possible annexation of the Jordan Valley, according to a AFP journalist on site.

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