Israel gives green light for settlement construction as US's Biden visits

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US VP Biden is in Israel this week and as a little present Israel has given the go ahead for yet more settlement construction. The settlement (pictured above) looks more like a hilltop military outpost, which is essentially what they are, than a village.
Israel authorized the construction of 112 new apartments in the West Bank despite a pledge to slow settlement building, the government disclosed Monday - a decision that enraged the Palestinians a day after they reluctantly agreed to resume peace talks.

Word of the new construction in the Beitar Illit settlement came amid a flurry of activity by the U.S. to try to salvage peacemaking.

Under heavy U.S. pressure, Israel agreed in November to restrict building in the West Bank to some 3,000 apartments whose construction was already
underway. But it rejected any curbs in east Jerusalem, which the Palestinians want for their future capital

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