New Israeli plan a ‘dangerous blow to the two-state solution’

Massive Israeli settlement in the heart of Palestine would mark the end of a viable Palestinian state, critics say.

Hizma, Occupied West Bank – The Israeli government is forging ahead with a plan for a massive new Israeli settlement that could destroy the two-state solution and Palestinian hopes for an independent state. In an August 8 report, Israel’s Peace Now organisation said a plan for 9,000 housing units near Atarot Airport – between the Palestinian neighbourhoods of Kafr Aqab, Qalandiya and ar-Ram south of Ramallah – was moving ahead. If this plan goes through, it will be the first new settlement in East Jerusalem since former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government built the Har Homa settlement in 1997.