No commitment made to restrict construction to large settlement blocs.
Israel will restrict its building beyond the Green Line to the built-up areas of existing settlements, the security cabinet decided Thursday night after nearly three weeks of discussions on the matter with the US government.
The guiding principle behind the new guidelines is to limit as much as possible Israel’s settlement “footprint” beyond the existing communities. Sources said the decision was taken out of consideration of the position of US President Donald Trump, and that Israel will also significantly curb building to enable efforts to advance a diplomatic process with the Palestinians.
Israel, according to the security cabinet decision, will — as much as possible — only permit building within the existing construction lines of the settlements, a principle that was also informally employed during much of George W. Bush’s tenure.
In areas where this is not possible because there is no more available land inside the settlements, construction will take place close to the existing construction line. Where this too is impossible because of issues of land ownership, or security or topographic considerations, Israel will build as close to the existing settlement as possible.
As reported by The Jerusalem Post