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Note: Due to COVID-19, some of the attractions mentioned in this article may be closed, have limited hours of operation, or be operating with additional safety measures in place check business websites before visiting. Add a few of these 12 detours to your itinerary and get the most out of your next road trip. Make these detours more than just a chance to stretch your legs take these chances to see some interesting sights in Virginia. The US State Department has been contacted by Middle East Eye for comment.There are about 110 miles of road from Richmond to the end of Interstate 64 East, and sometimes, pit stops are necessary. Settlement construction approvals in Ramat Shlomo in 2010 caused a major rift between Netanyahu, Obama and his vice president, Biden. “Either way, further construction beyond the Green Line does not solve any of the real problems of the binational reality that exists in Jerusalem and between the Jordan and the Sea,” he added. The Israeli government plan, known as E1, involves building hundreds of units to link the settlements of Kfar Adumim and Maale Adumim with East Jerusalem in the Israeli-controlled Area C of the West Bank.Ĭritics have said the plan would effectively split the West Bank in half, isolate East Jerusalem from Palestinian communities in the West Bank and force Palestinians to make even lengthier detours to travel from one place to another while illegal settlements would be able to expand.Īviv Tatarsky, director of Ir Amim, an Israeli civil society organisation that tracks settlements in Jerusalem, told Haaretz that the “advancement of the plan is worrying news for those who thought that the change of administrations in the United States would force Israel to restrain construction in the settlements”. '(The) advancement of the plan is worrying news for those who thought that the change of administrations in the US would force Israel to restrain construction in the settlements' Under Barack Obama's presidency, the US administration had asked the Israeli government to freeze the construction of 1,800 settlement units in Ramat Shlomo in 2010 and 2,610 illegal settlement units in Givat Hamatos in 2014.Īhead of the Israeli elections in March 2020, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that he planned to authorise the construction of some 3,500 homes for Jewish settlers. Splitting West Bank in halfīiden has said that his administration would restore US opposition to settlements, after his predecessor Trump recognised Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in December 2017 and went on to announce in November 2019 that his administration no longer considered Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank to violate international law. In Donald Trump's last days in the White House, Israel took advantage of the staunchly pro-Israel stance of the outgoing president to push construction in Har Homa, Givat Hamatos and Atarot.Įthiopian-Israeli and Russian-Israeli Jewish settlers have since settled in mobile homes in the 170-dunam (42-acre) area, which is served by Israeli public transport. While Palestinian leadership has sought a solution to the occupation with East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state, Israel claims the entirety of Jerusalem as its capital. Settlement building across these neighbourhoods would further curtail any chance of splitting Jerusalem as part of a two-state solution privileged by the international community. The village of Beit Safafa and the neighbourhood of Sharafat, both located just north of the Palestinian city of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank, were occupied by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war, and are now home to some 25,000 Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem. "I am happy and proud to place another stone of Zion on the way to building Jerusalem." Moshe Leon, the head of the Israeli Jerusalem municipality, said in a statement that it was "a great day for Jerusalem… especially for the young families". Jerusalem's Old City: How Palestine's past is being slowly erased Read More »