Germany Urges Israel to Halt West Bank Settlement Plans

Berlin: Germany on Friday called on the Israeli government to stop settlement construction in the West Bank after Israel's far-right finance minister said work would start on a plan for thousands of homes that would divide the Palestinian territory. Germany "firmly rejects the Israeli government's announcements regarding the approval of thousands of new housing units in Israeli settlements in the West Bank," said a foreign ministry spokesperson in a statement. According to , plans for the "E1" settlement and the expansion of Maale Adumim would further restrict the mobility of the Palestinian population in the West Bank by splitting it in half and cutting the area off from East Jerusalem, said the spokesperson. Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced on Thursday that work would start on the long-delayed settlement, a move that his office said would "bury" the idea of a Palestinian state. In a statement, Smotrich's spokesperson said the minister had approved the plan to build 3,401 houses for Isra eli settlers between an existing settlement in the West Bank and Jerusalem.