OIC condemns Israeli approval of 34 new West Bank settlements | Israel-Palestine conflict News

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has Israel’s approval of 34 new settlements in the West Bank occupied

The Israeli rights group Peace Now reported late Thursday that the government made the decision “in secret” in early April. The decision was also widely reported by Israeli media.

The Palestinian Presidency’s office condemned the plan as a “blatant violation of international law.” There was no immediate comment from the Israeli government.

The OIC’s general secretariat said in a statement on Friday that Israel, “the occupying power, has no sovereignty over the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Al-Quds (Jerusalem), and that all its measures aimed at changing the geographic and demographic reality there are null and void under international law.”

The 34 settlements approved Thursday come on top of 68 approved since Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government came to power in 2022.

The OIC General Secretariat also “warned of the seriousness of the escalation of settlement policies, land confiscation, settler terrorism and attempts to annex and impose so-called Israeli sovereignty on the occupied West Bank, stressing that these are aimed at undermining the two-state solution and the rights of the Palestinian people“.

Turkey also criticized Israel’s approval of the new settlements, calling it a “serious violation of international law and UN resolutions.”

Anouar el Anouni, the European Union’s spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, condemned the approval of the new settlements.

“The European Union strongly condemns Israel’s unilateral actions to expand its presence in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, which the International Court of Justice’s advisory opinion of 19 July 2024 declared illegal, and urges the Government of Israel to reverse these decisions, to comply with its obligations under international law and to protect the occupied territories of the Palestinian population,” it said.

Sweden’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs also condemned the decision, saying in a post on X that the settlements are a “flagrant violation of international law and undermine the ongoing efforts for peace and stability in the region.”

“We call on the government of Israel to reverse this immediately and to respect its international obligations,” the ministry said.

Israel’s Channel 24 reported that the security cabinet “secretly” approved the establishment of these new settlements during a recent session.

“This is the largest number of settlements ever approved in a single cabinet session,” it added.

News website Ynet reported that military chief Eyal Zamir warned during the security cabinet meeting on April 1 that the army could “collapse” due to increasing demands on its manpower. This included legalizing dozens of outposts, granting them official settlement status and thus protection from Israeli troops.

The approved sites include locations within Palestinian neighborhoods in the northern West Bank and remote areas rarely reached by Israeli forces, Channel 24 said, adding that 10 of the 34 settlements are already existing outposts, which are illegal under Israeli law but will now be retroactively legalized under the decision.

Die oorblywende 24 moet nog gebou word. All Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank are illegal under international law.

The decision was not officially published by any Israeli government body.

Israel het die Wesoewer sedert 1967 beset. Excluding East Jerusalem, more than 500,000 Israelis now live there in settlements, among some three million Palestinians.

Settlement expansion has been a key policy under successive Israeli governments since 1967, but has accelerated significantly under the Netanyahu-led coalition.

Rights groups say new settlement approvals, land seizures and settler violence have further increased since Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza began in October 2023, killing more than 72,000 Palestinians.