ISRAELI Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged to build new homes in the occupied West Bank settlement of Beit El in an effort to defuse a domestic political furore sparked by the court-ordered relocation of other settlers.
The decision infuriated the Palestinians, who have refused to conduct peace talks while Israel expands its settlements on occupied land.
Mr Netanyahu has been criticised by members of his government and the Likud party for supporting a Supreme Court decision ordering the removal of settlement homes built on private Palestinian land. The Israeli leader said he would comply with the court ruling by relocating the five houses to the adjacent settlement of Beit El, along with ordering the construction of new homes there.
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''The Beit El settlement will be expanded with 30 families, and they will be joined by 300 new families,'' Mr Netanyahu said at a press conference in Jerusalem. ''I say to all those who think they will use the judicial system to harm the settlement effort that they are wrong, that exactly the opposite will happen.''
In Washington, US State Department spokesman Mark Toner repeated the long-standing US position against Israeli settlement expansion.
''We're very clear that continued Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank undermines peace efforts and contradicts Israeli commitments and obligations,'' Mr Toner said. ''We do not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlement activity.'' He said the US wanted to see both parties ''get back into negotiations''.
Mr Netanyahu announced his decision shortly after the Knesset rejected an attempt by hardline politicians to leave the buildings, which are home to 30 settler families, intact and instead compensate the Palestinian landowners.
But under pressure from Mr Netanyahu, the Knesset resoundingly defeated the measure.


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/israeli-pm-makes-loss-a-settler-gain-20120607-1zyus.html#ixzz1x7RRjASX