Americans for Peace Now (APN) strongly condemns the Israeli government's advancement of plans for construction of almost 5,000 new homes in West Bank settlements.

As APN's sister organization Shalom Achshav (Peace Now) points out, the approval of these settlement homes makes 2020 a record year in terms of plans approved for settlement construction since Peace Now started systematically documenting the building of settlements in the West Bank in 2012. The tally so far is 12,159 units approved in 2020, with the possibility for another round of settlement construction plan approval before year's end.

Likewise, this development represents a spike in approval of settlement construction plans under President Trump, when Israeli settlement activity has dramatically increased due to relaxed pressure on the Israeli government by the US Administration.

APN's President and CEO Hadar Susskind said: "Every brick laid in a West Bank settlement is another obstacle to Israeli-Palestinian peace. The wholesale approval of thousands of housing units makes a mockery of the Israeli government's claims that it is extending its hand in peace to Israel's Palestinian neighbors. Normalization with Gulf states means nothing when the government of Israel normalizes the occupation. But the responsibility for sabotaging peace and Israeli democracy rests not only with the government of Israel but also with the Trump administration, which has legitimized the settlements and the occupation, and has granted Israel a green light to intensify both."

For more details on the current approval of West Bank settlement construction plans, see Peace Now's report: https://rb.gy/u2xluw