Page 29 - bon-dia-aruba-20210118

A29
world news Dialuna 18 Januari 2021

Israel OKs hundreds of settlement homes in last-minute push

(AP) — Israeli authorities Now, Israel approved or ad- The Palestinians claim all of
on Sunday advanced plans vanced construction of over the West Bank, captured by
to build nearly 800 homes 12,000 settlement homes in Israel in the 1967 Mideast
in West Bank settlements, 2020, the highest number in war, as part of a future inde-
in a last-minute surge a single year since it began re- pendent state. They say the
of approvals before the cording statistics in 2012. growing settler population,
friendly Trump adminis- approaching some 500,000
tration leaves office later “By promoting hundreds people, makes it increasing-
this week. of settlement units, Prime ly difficult to achieve their
Minister Netanyahu is once dream of independence.
COGAT, the Israeli defense again putting his personal po-
body that authorizes settle- litical interests over those of Nabil Abu Rdeneh, spokes-
ment construction, con- the country,” the group said. man for Palestinian Presi-
firmed the approvals, which “Not only will this settle- dent Mahmoud Abbas, said
drew swift condemnations ment activity erode the pos- Sunday's decision marked a
from the Palestinians. sibility for a conflict-ending “preemptive attempt by the
resolution with the Palestin- Israeli government to under-
The anti-settlement moni- ians in the long-term, but mine any effort that the U.S.
toring group Peace Now said in the short-term it need- President-elect Joe Biden’s tions, along with the rest of
that over 90% of the homes lessly sets Israel on a collision administration might make the international commu- As a result, Israel approved
lay deep inside the West course with the incoming to relaunch the stalled peace nity, opposed settlement con- plans for over 27,000 settler
Bank, which the Palestinians Biden administration.” process.” struction. But Trump, sur- homes during Trump's four-
seek as the heartland of a fu- rounded by a team of advisers year term, more than 2.5
ture independent state, and Netanyahu’s office said last Jordan, which borders the with close ties to the settler times the number approved
over 200 homes were located week he would seek approv- West Bank, and the European movement, took a different during the Obama admin-
in unauthorized outposts that als for the latest construc- Union also condemned the approach. His administra- istration’s second term, ac-
the government had decided tion projects. They include Israeli announcement. The tion did not criticize Israeli cording to Peace Now.
to legalize. 100 homes in Tal Menashe, EU said it is “contrary to in- settlement announcements,
a settlement where an Israeli ternational law and further and in a landmark decision, Biden is expected to return
Israel has stepped up settle- woman was killed last month undermines the prospects of announced in 2018 that it did to the traditional U.S. posi-
ment construction during in an attack for which a Pales- a viable two-state solution.” not consider settlements to tion of opposing settlements,
President Donald Trump’s tinian man has been charged. be illegal under international setting the stage for a possible
term. According to Peace A string of U.S. administra- law. clash with Netanyahu.

Kremlin critic Navalny detained after landing in Moscow

conviction for embezzlement. The reported Sunday that several Navalny
prison service has asked a Moscow supporters in St. Petersburg had been
court to turn Navalny’s 3 1/2-year removed from Moscow-bound trains
suspended sentence into a real one. or been prevented from boarding
flights late Saturday and early Sunday,
After boarding the Moscow flight in including the coordinator of his staff
Berlin on Sunday, Navalny said of the for the region of Russia’s second-
prospect of arrest: “It’s impossible; largest city.
I’m an innocent man.”
Navalny fell into a coma while
The Kremlin has repeatedly denied aboard a domestic flight from Siberia
a role in the opposition leader’s poi- to Moscow on Aug. 20. He was trans-
soning. ferred from a hospital in Siberia to a
Berlin hospital two days later.
Navalny supporters and journalists
had come to Moscow's Vnukovo Air- Labs in Germany, France and Swe-
port, where the plane was scheduled den, and tests by the Organization for
to land, but it ended up touching the Prohibition of Chemical Weap-
down at Sheremetyevo airport, about ons, established that he was exposed
40 kilometers (25 miles) away. There to a Soviet-era Novichok nerve agent.
was no immediate explanation for the
flight diversion. Russian authorities insisted that the
doctors who treated Navalny in Si-
(AP) — Russian opposition lead- blamed on the Kremlin. Navalny de- The OVD-Info group, which moni- beria before he was airlifted to Ger-
er Alexei Navalny was detained cided to leave Berlin of his own free tors political arrests, said at least 37 many found no traces of poison and
at a Moscow airport after return- will and wasn’t under any apparent people were arrested at Vnukovo have challenged German officials to
ing from Germany on Sunday, the pressure to leave from Germany. Airport, although their affiliations provide proof of his poisoning. They
prison service said. weren't immediately clear. refused to open a full-fledged crimi-
The prison service made the an- nal inquiry, citing a lack of evidence
The prison service said he was de- nouncement after the flight carrying Vnukovo banned journalists from that Navalny was poisoned.
tained for multiple violations of pa- Navalny landed in the Russian capi- working inside the terminal, saying in
role and terms of a suspended prison tal, though at a different airport than a statement last week that the move Last month, Navalny released the
sentence and would be held in cus- had been scheduled. It was a possible was due to epidemiological concerns. recording of a phone call he said he
tody until a court makes a decision in attempt to outwit journalists and sup- The airport also blocked off access to made to a man he described as an al-
his case. porters who wanted to witness Na- the international arrivals area. leged member of a group of officers
valny's return. of the Federal Security Service, or
Navalny, who is President Vladimir Police prisoner-detention vehicles FSB, who purportedly poisoned him
Putin’s most prominent and deter- Russia’s prison service last week is- stood outside the terminal on Sunday. in August and then tried to cover it
mined foe, had spent the previous sued a warrant for his arrest, saying up. The FSB dismissed the recording
five months in Germany recover- he had violated the terms of suspend- The independent newspaper Novaya as fake.
ing from a nerve agent attack that he ed sentence he received on a 2014 Gazeta and opposition social media