Israeli authorities on Sunday advanced plans to build nearly 800 homes in settlements in Yehuda and Shomron, in a last-minute surge of approvals three days before the friendly Trump administration leaves office.

COGAT, the Israeli defense body that authorizes settlement construction, confirmed the approvals, saying that about 780 homes have been approved.

Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan called the approval a “historic achievement.”

Netanyahu’s office said last week he would seek approvals for the latest construction projects. They include 100 homes in Tel Menashe, a settlement where an Israeli woman was brutally murdered by a Palestinian Arab last month.

A string of U.S. administrations, along with the rest of the international community, opposed settlement construction. But Trump, surrounded by a team of advisers with close ties to the settler movement, took a different approach. His administration did not criticize Israeli settlement announcements, and in a landmark decision, announced in 2018 that it did not consider settlements to be illegal under international law.

As a result, Israel approved plans for over 27,000 settler homes during Trump’s four-year term, more than 2.5 times the number approved during the Obama administration’s second term, according to Peace Now, a left-wing watchdog, which condemned the move.

“By promoting hundreds of settlement units, Prime Minister Netanyahu is once again putting his personal political interests over those of the country,” it stated.

“Not only will this settlement activity erode the possibility for a conflict-ending resolution with the Palestinians in the long-term, but in the short-term it needlessly sets Israel on a collision course with the incoming Biden administration.”

Biden is expected to return to the traditional U.S. position of opposing settlements, setting the stage for a possible clash with Netanyahu.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem & AP)