Palestine PM Urges New US Administration to Adopt Anti-‘Israeli’ Settlements Measures

By Staff, Agencies

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh called on the administration of new US President Joe Biden to make good on its opposition to the Zionist entity’s settlement expansion across the occupied West Bank and take concrete measures to tackle the expansionism.

Speaking at the opening of the weekly cabinet meeting in Ramallah on Tuesday, Shtayyeh said the uptick in ‘Israeli’ settlement construction activities amid the global coronavirus pandemic undermines international efforts to keep alive the prospect for the establishment of an independent State of Palestine.

He also condemned the Zionist occupation authorities’ decision to evict Palestinian families from their homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of occupied East al-Quds, calling on international human rights organizations to urgently intervene to stop the eviction.

The senior Palestinian official then urged world states to condemn the Tel Aviv regime’s land expropriation plans, and compel the occupation entity to stop them immediately.

Last October, the so-called ‘Israeli’ magistrate court of al-Quds ruled to evict 12 of the 24 Palestinian families in Sheikh Jarrah and to give their homes to ‘Israeli’ settlers.

The court also ruled that each family must pay $20,000 in fees to cover the settlers’ legal expenses.

The families were given 30 days to file an appeal, but most expressed little hope for a ruling in their favor, saying the ‘Israeli’ judiciary is no more than an instrument of the ‘Israeli’ occupation policy of forcibly displacing and erasing the Palestinian presence in al-Quds.

More than 600,000 Zionists occupy over 230 settlements built since the 1967 ‘Israeli’ occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East al-Quds. All ‘Israeli’ settlements are illegal under international law.