Settlements are now growing 11 times faster than before Annapolis
Ramallah, 14-06-08: The announcement by the Israeli government yesterday of plans to build a further 1,300 settlement units in the Ramat Shlomo settlement in occupied East Jerusalem, is "a further reflection of the Israeli government‘s strategy to de facto annex the city before a final status agreement can be reached," said PNI Secretary General Mustafa Barghouthi MP today.
The new construction comes in addition to the staggering 9,432 settlement housing units that have been approved since the Annapolis meeting on 27 November 2007.
"The Olmert government claimed at Annapolis that it wanted peace, and yet settlements are now growing 11 times faster than before Annapolis," said Dr. Barghouthi.
"In the meantime, the Israeli government continues constructing its Apartheid Wall. There is simply no explanation for this other than that it is using the peace process as a guise to further its expansionist project, through which it intends to leave Palestinians with just half of the West Bank on which to form a Bantustan, ghetto state," he added.