Netanyahu signs West Bank settlement expansion plan

USALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signed an agreement on Thursday to push ahead with a controversial settlement expansion plan that would cut across land that the Palestinians seek for a state.

“There will not be a Palestinian state,” Netanyahu said during a visit to the Maale Adumim settlement in the West Bank where thousands of new housing units would be added.

Last month, the E1 project, which would bisect the occupied West Bank and cut it off from East Jerusalem, received final approval.