June 19 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The United States government has condemned the decision of the Israeli Council of Ministers to shorten the procedures for the approval of the construction of new Jewish settlements in the West Bank, while at the same time it has asked Israel to resume the path of dialogue for de-escalation.
“We are concerned by reports of changes to Israel’s settlement management system that expedite settlement planning and approval,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.
The spokesman remarked that “as has been the policy for a long time, the United States opposes this type of unilateral action that makes it difficult to achieve a two-state solution and constitutes an obstacle to peace.”
Likewise, Miller has shown his “deep concern” regarding the decision of the Government of Israel to advance in the planning of more than 4,000 settlements of Israeli settlers in the West Bank.
As reported by the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, Washington has also informed the Israeli authorities that the Negev Forum, which was scheduled for early July in Morocco, will be postponed due to the approval of plans for the construction of thousands of homes in West Bank territory.
The Jordanian authorities have also spoken out against the Israeli government’s decision, denouncing that the displacement of residents from their homes is a “flagrant and serious violation of international law.”
The spokesman for the Jordanian Foreign Ministry, Sinan al Majali, has indicated that “the practices carried out by Israel, the occupying power, from building and expanding settlements, to confiscating land and displacing Palestinians, are illegal practices, rejected and condemned, and represent a serious violation of International Humanitarian Law, undermining the foundations of peace and the chances of a two-state solution.”
Following the news, the new Secretary General of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Minister of Civil Affairs of the Palestinian Authority, Hussein al-Sheikh, has announced that he will not attend the meeting with the Israeli side of the Joint Economic Commission scheduled for this Monday.
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry has criticized the “seriousness” that with these changes it is the Finance Minister, Minister within the Defense portfolio and leader of the far-right Religious Zionism party, Bezalel Smotrich, who now controls the two phases necessary for approval of new constructions.
For this reason, he has asked the United States to pressure Israel to reverse the initiative and “force the Israeli government to stop its unilateral illegal actions” because they harm the options of achieving a two-state solution.
The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) has also called on the international community to “take serious and urgent measures to stop these Judaization projects that will bring further escalation in the region and threaten peace and security in it.”
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.
