AGENCIES

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday vowed that there would be no Palestinian state, speaking at a signing ceremony for a major settlement project in the occupied West Bank.

“We are going to fulfil our promise that there will be no Palestinian state, this place belongs to us,” Netanyahu said at the event in Maale Adumim, an Israeli settlement just east of Jerusalem.

“We will safeguard our heritage, our land and our security... We are going to double the city’s population.” The event was streamed live by his office.

Israel has long had ambitions to build on the roughly 12 square kilometre (five square mile) tract of land known as E1, but the plan had been stalled for years in the face of international opposition.

The site sits between Jerusalem and the Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim, near routes connecting the north and south of the Palestinian territory.

Last month, Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich backed plans to build around 3,400 homes on the ultra-sensitive parcel of land.

His announcement drew condemnation, with UN chief Antonio Guterres saying the settlement would effectively cleave the West Bank in two and pose an “existential threat” to a contiguous Palestinian state.

SEE PAGE 2 COL 1