Faizel Patel, Radio Islam News, 2014-06-05

Apartheid Israel is planning to build 1 500 new homes in Jewish settlements.

Israeli Housing Minister Uri Ariel has invited bids for the new homes in retaliation for a new Palestinian government backed by Hamas.

Of the new homes, 400 will be in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem with the rest elsewhere in the occupied West Bank, the online edition of Haaretz newspaper reported.

Ariel said it was “an appropriate Zionist response to the terrorist Palestinian government,” the paper reported.

“Israel has the right and duty to build throughout the entire country,” said the minister, who is a member of the far-right Jewish Home party which is fierce champion of the settlements and opposes a Palestinian state.

The announcement comes  as Washington’s support for a new Palestinian government backed by Hamas has left the Jewish state feeling betrayed triggering a crisis with its new ally.

Several Israeli ministers expressed public anger after the US State department said it was willing to work with the new Palestinian Unity Government put together by the West Bank leadership and Gaza’s Hamas rulers.
 
The new government was sworn in on Monday in front of President Mahmoud Abbas with Washington offering its backing several hours later.

On a lightning visit to Israel’s northern neighbour Lebanon on Wednesday, Secretary of State John Kerry defended the US decision.

(Twitter: @Faizie143)