By Abdel-Raouf Arnaout
JERUSALEM
A recent decision by the Israeli government to confiscate 4,000 dunam of West Bank land has "drove the American nuts," an Israeli official was quoted Friday by Israeli daily Haaretz as saying.
According to the Israeli paper, senior officials in the U.S. administration have sent "extremely sharply worded" messages to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office over the land grab.
The paper quoted an unnamed senior U.S. official as saying: "Maybe our reaction will find expression in other ways,” hinting at possible further action towards the Israeli move.
Earlier this week, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry asked Netanyahu to reverse the decision, according to the Israel Radio.
The Israeli authorities on Sunday announced the seizure of 4,000 dunam in the southern West Bank in a move aiming at expanding the Gush Etzion settlement.
The confiscation order was taken by the Israeli authorities as a response to the kidnapping and subsequent killing of three Jewish settlers two months ago in Hebron, the Israeli radio said.
The Israeli authorities gave the Palestinians and human rights organizations 45 days to submit their legal objections to the decision in Israeli courts.
Israeli settlement building in Jerusalem and the West Bank has recently swung into full gear after peace talks with the Palestinians collapsed earlier this year.
Palestinian negotiators insist that Israeli settlement building on Arab land must stop before any comprehensive peace agreement can be reached.
International law views the West Bank and East Jerusalem as "occupied territories" and considers all Jewish settlement building on the land illegal.
About 500,000 Israelis now live in more than one hundred Jewish-only settlements built since Israel seized the West Bank and East Jerusalem in 1967.
The Palestinians want these areas, along with the Gaza Strip, for an eventual independent state of Palestine.
www.aa.com.tr/en
