|
Ashrawi:
Israeli Settlement Activity in the West Bank Amounts
to War Crimes
By MA'AN
October 22,
2017 "Information
Clearing House"
-
BETHLEHEM ( Ma’an) --
Following announcements that Israel had
advanced plans for
nearly 3,000 illegal settlement units in the
occupied West Bank, Palestine Liberation
Organization Executive Committee Member Dr. Hanan
Ashrawi strongly denounced the move as a “blatant
disregard for the two-state solution.”
The Israeli
Civil Administration’s High Planning Committee
convened on Tuesday and Wednesday, and advanced
plans for 2,615 housing units in illegal Israeli
settlements.
“In
blatant disregard of the requirements for the
two-state solution and the chances for peace and
stability, Netanyahu and his extremist, racist
coalition continue to persist with their
egregious policies of colonial-settler
expansionism,” Ashrawi said.
“Israel
is deliberately working to enhance its extremist
Jewish settler population and to superimpose
‘Greater Israel’ on all of historic Palestine.
Undoubtedly, it is bent on annexing the entire
city of Jerusalem, systematically wiping out the
Palestinian presence and continuity on
Palestinian soil, and destroying the territorial
and demographic contiguity of the future
Palestinian state.”
Ashrawi
went on to highlight that Israel’s settlement
activities are illegal under international law,
and may amount to war crimes under the Rome
Statute of the International Criminal Court
(ICC).
|
No
Advertising
- No
Government
Grants -
This Is
Independent
Media
|
“We call on governments worldwide to intervene
immediately and to hold Israel accountable with
serious punitive measures to put an end to its
unlawful unilateralism and acts of land theft
and colonialism once and for all,” Ashrawi said.
Since the
occupation of the West Bank, including East
Jerusalem, in 1967,
between 500,000 and 600,000 Israelis have moved
into Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian
territory, in violation of international law.
The
estimated 196 government recognized Israeli
settlements scattered across the Palestinian
territory are all considered illegal under
international law.
Meanwhile, Israeli
rights group B’Tselem
reported that
in 2016 Palestinians experienced the highest
number of Israeli demolitions since the group
began recording the incidents.
At
the same time, Peace now reported that Israel’s
illegal settlement construction in the West Bank
increased by 34 percent in 2016,
with Israeli authorities initiating construction
on 1,814 new settler housing units.
This
article was originally published by
MA'AN
-
|
