http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2015/05...ank-settlement

Israeli forces have attacked Palestinian demonstrators protesting against Tel Aviv’s construction of illegal settlement units and its land grabs near the occupied West Bank town of Betunia.

Israeli troops fired teargas and used water cannons to disperse the protesters, who had gathered outside the compound of the Israeli Ofer military prison near Betunia on Friday.

During the protest, the Palestinians chanted slogans against the confiscation of their land and the construction of Israeli settlements.

The United Nations and most countries regard the Israeli settlements as illegal because the territories were captured by Israel in the 1967 war and are hence subject to the Geneva Conventions, which forbid construction on the occupied lands.

Earlier this week, Israel approved the construction of 90 new illegal settlement units in East al-Quds (Jerusalem) in defiance of international calls on the regime to stop its expansionist policies in the occupied Palestinian lands.

Israel has tried to change the demographic makeup of al-Quds over the past decades by building illegal settlements, destroying historical sites, and expelling the local Palestinian population.

More than half a million Israelis live in over 120 illegal settlements built since Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank, including al-Quds.