A wall separating Palestine and Israel (Creative Commons).

Israel said that it will build 3,000 new homes in settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

The expansion of the illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories was approved by Israel's conservative Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The government did not say which specific settlements would be expanded, but the move goes with the policies of Netanyahu's Likud party, which wants to decrease the Arab population in Jerusalem and the surrounding area.

The new homes are thought to be in the E-1 area, a section of the occupied territories that would split the northern part from the southern. Israel previously agreed to halt all settlement construction in the E-1 area in 2003.

The announcement comes the day after the United Nations granted Palestine non-member observer status within the organization. Israel said the unilateral action from Palestine hurt peace efforts, and said that the United Nations' resolution means nothing. Israel itself was established by a United Nations resolution more than 60 years ago. Only nine countries, the United States and Israel among them, voted against upgrading Palestine's status, while 41 abstained and the rest voted in favor of Palestine.

Israel's “security council,” a group of nine ministers including Netanyahu, was the body that approved the expansion.

Israel and the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip exchanged a series of attacks earlier this month in a conflict that killed more than 130 people, many of which were civilians.

Israel's settlements in the Palestinian territories have increased over recent years, with roughly half a million Israelies now living there, and are illegal under international law. The settlements go past the 1967 borders that the two-state peace proposal uses as a model. Israel's refusal to freeze settlement construction, as well as anti-Palestinian violence from conservative settlers, remain a major obstacle to peace talks between the two sides in the Israeli Palestinian conflict. Netanyahu's government has regularly approved expansions of settlements.

Netanyahu's government also uses settlements as a way to deal with the growing housing crisis in Israel. He says that settlements are the cheap housing that citizens want. Starting last summer, Israelis have been protesting against rising costs inside the country in housing and education, as the government increases austerity measures. They say that they want cheap housing inside Israel, not in settlements.

The White House, which opposed Palestine's United Nations bid, called Israel's expansion of settlements “counterproductive” and reiterated its policy that both Israel and Palestine need to resume direct peace negotiations.

Read more of Neon Tommy's coverage of Palestine's United Nations bid here.
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