Far-right minister backs West Bank settlement plan

ISRAEL'S finance minister backed plans this week to build 3400 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.

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The UN chief warned that building Israeli homes in the area would “put an end to” hopes for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Israel has long had ambitions to build on the sensitive parcel of land east of Jerusalem known as £1, but the plan has been frozen for decades amid international opposition.

Israeli settlements in the West Bank are considered illegal under international law, while critics and the international community have warned construction on the roughly 12 square kilometres would undermine hopes for a contiguous future Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital.

The site sits between the ancient city and the Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim, near routes connecting the north and south of the Palestinian territory. There are also separate, frozen plans to expand Israel's separation barrier to envelop the area.