UN Condemns «Israel’s» Illegal W Bank Settlement Plans

Local Editor

The United Nations [UN] condemned "Israeli" plans to build more illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.

A UN spokesman said "unilateral actions" were an obstacle to peace based on a so-called "two-state" solution.

On Tuesday, the "Israeli" regime's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the "Israeli" entity would build 2,500 more units in the illegal "Israeli" settlements.

It is the second such announcement by the "Israeli" apartheid authorities since US President Donald Trump took office.

Palestinian officials said the plans undermined hopes of resolving the "Israeli"-Palestinian conflict by building on land they want for a future state.

Stephane Dujarric, the spokesman for the UN secretary general Antonio Guterres, said: "For the secretary general there is no Plan B for the so-called "two-state" solution.

"In this respect any unilateral decision that can be an obstacle to the ‘two-state' goal is of grave concern for the secretary general," Dujarric said.

In the meantime, Trump indicated that he will be more sympathetic to settlement construction than his predecessor, Barack Obama, and appointed a staunch settlement supporter as his ambassador to the "Israeli" entity.

Last month, he criticized Obama for declining to veto a UN Security Council resolution which demanded the entity immediately cease all illegal settlement activities and warned they were "dangerously imperiling the viability of a ‘two-state' solution".

About 500,000 "Israeli" settlers live in about 140 illegal settlements built since the "Israeli" entity's 1967 occupation of the West Bank and East al-Quds [Jerusalem].

The settlements are considered illegal under international law.

Most of the new units approved on Tuesday will be built in existing West Bank settlement blocs, including 902 in "Ariel" and 652 in "Givat Zeev".

One hundred will be constructed in "Beit El", an illegal settlement near Ramallah that reportedly received funding from a foundation run by the family of Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner.

Following the announcement, Netanyahu declared on Twitter: "We are building - and continuing to build."

Netanyahu said he still supports a "two-state" solution, but on Sunday he told ministers that he was lifting restrictions on construction in the occupied West Bank and East al-Quds, as the city's municipality approved permits for 566 new units in the settlements of "Pisgat Zeev", "Ramat Shlomo" and "Ramot".

The "Israeli" primer also discussed the so-called "peace" process with the Palestinians with Trump in a telephone conversation, during which he was invited to a meeting in Washington in early February.

"The president emphasized that ‘peace' between ‘Israel' and the Palestinians can only be negotiated directly between the two parties, and that the United States will work closely with Israel to make progress towards that goal," the White House said.

Palestine Liberation Organization [PLO] executive committee member Hanan Ashrawi strongly denounced Tuesday's announcement accusing the apartheid regime of "land theft and colonialism".

"Such a deliberate escalation of ‘Israel's' illegal settlement enterprise constitutes a war crime and the flagrant violation of international law and conventions, in particular UN Security Council resolution 2334," she said in a statement.

Ashrawi called on the US and the rest of the international community to "undertake serious and concrete measures to bring about a full cessation of all settlement activities and to hold ‘Israel' to account for these disastrous plans with punitive measures and sanctions before it completes the destruction of the territorial and demographic contiguity of the West Bank".

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team