The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates condemned today the Israeli occupation’s final approval of the construction of about 5,700 new settlement units in an effort to consolidate and expand the Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories and said that with this decision, Israel is actually rewarding settler terrorism against the Palestinian people. The Foreign Ministry considered the approval “a new crime committed by the Israeli government against our people and an extension of its open war against the Palestinian existence in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and a flagrant violation of international law and the Geneva Conventions, as well as a heinous aggression on international legitimacy and its resolutions, and disregard for the continuous international and American rejection of settlements, which warn of their dangers to the opportunity to implement the two-state solution as the key to peace, security and stability in the Middle East.’ It said that the new units are ‘a reward for the Israeli extreme right, (cabinet ministers Bezalel) Smotrich and (Itamar) Ben Gvir, and their likes and terrorist followers who will employ these units to expand the bases of Jewish terrorism in the occupied West Bank, which means giving them a greater opportunity to escalate their attacks against the defenseless Palestinian civilians.” The ministry stressed that “the weakness of international reaction toward settlements and failure to implement them and turn them into pressure to stop them, and the failure of the international community to assume its responsibilities and respect its decisions encouraged the Israeli government and provided it with cover to build thousands of new settlement units.” It also stressed that “Israel’s continued impunity, the silence of the International Criminal Court towards the crimes of the occupation and its settlers, and the double international standards, provide the occupying state with the necessary time to consolidate its settlements and undermine the opportunity to establish a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.”
Source: Palestine news & Information Agency – WAFA