Israeli minister backs West Bank settlement plan

Critics: Construction will undermine hopes for a future Palestinian state

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Israel’s finance minister yesterday backed plans to build 3,400 homes in a particularly contentious area of the occupied West Bank, calling for the territory’s annexation in response to several countries’ plans to recognise a Palestinian state.

Israel has long had ambitions to build on the sensitive parcel of land, east of Jerusalem, known as E1, but the plan has been frozen for decades amid international opposition.

Israeli settlements illegal