Ramallah, June 29 (IANS) The Palestinian Foreign Ministry has condemned the Israeli cabinet’s move to legalise five settlement outposts in the West Bank and advance plans to build thousands of new units across the occupied territory.
The Ministry said on Friday in a press statement that it “views with extreme seriousness that the Israeli government continues to commit the crime of settlement expansion and deepening apartheid, with the aim of closing the door to any opportunity to materialise a Palestinian state”.
The statement held the Israeli government responsible for the results of settlement expansion and its dangerous repercussions on the conflict arenas and the entire region, Xinhua news agency reported.
It called for international intervention to stop the Israeli government’s “unilateral, illegal actions and to exert real pressure on it to stop settlement activity and submit to the international will for peace”.
On Thursday, the Israeli security cabinet approved Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s plan to address several countries’ recognition of a Palestinian state and measures taken against Israel in international courts, according to Israeli state-owned Kan TV.
Kan TV said the plan is to take measures against the Palestinian Authority, legalise five settlement outposts in the West Bank, and issue tenders for building thousands of housing units in the settlements.
According to Smotrich’s proposal, five settlement outposts will be recognised and legalised as a response to the five countries that recognised a Palestinian state after the onset of the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict on October 7, 2023.
Some of the Ministers and military personnel who attended the meeting expressed their opposition to Smotrich’s plan, according to Kan TV, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not express his position on the plan, but he temporarily suspended the session for consultations.
Israel occupied the West Bank in 1967 and has since established settlements there, which are considered violations of international law.
–IANS
int/khz
