The Palestinian Authority denounces an Israeli plan to build 4,000 new homes in the West Bank

June 12 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Palestinian Government has denounced on Monday a plan for the construction of up to 4,000 new homes for Jews in settlements in the West Bank and which could be announced this month.

The Palestinian statement condemns “in the strongest possible terms” the measure refers to the Israeli “media publications” about the construction of these houses, “a crime in every sense of the word and a flagrant violation of international law and the international resolutions in order to annex the occupied West Bank”.

The Palestinian government takes this information “very seriously” which suggests that the intentions of the government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have already been conveyed to Washington.

In this sense, the Palestinians consider that this initiative “tests the positions of the US Administration on the two-state solution,” according to the statement, which asks Washington to prevent the plan from being implemented.

The West Bank –including East Jerusalem– and the Gaza Strip –from which Israel withdrew in 2005– were militarily occupied by Israel in the 1967 war along with the Golan Heights –in dispute with Syria–.

In total, some 700,000 Jewish settlers live in the West Bank, some of them in colonies considered legal by Israel and some in settlements considered illegal even by the Israeli government. International Law considers the colonization of militarily occupied territories a war crime.