The Palestinian MP and political expert Mustafa al-Barghouthi on Wednesday said that Israel has turned the West Bank into 225 separate small islands through the checkpoints and settlement outposts scattered everywhere in addition to the apartheid wall passing through its lands.
Following the Oslo Accords in 1993 the West Bank was divided into three areas: A B and C. Area A comprises 18% of the West Bank and falls under the security and administrative control of the Palestinian Authority (PA).
Area B represents 21% of the West Bank and is administered by both the PA and Israel while Area C which covers 61% of the West Bank is exclusively controlled by Israel.
Barghouthi affirmed that the Israeli settlement expansion in the occupied Palestinian territories has increased by more than 100% since the US President Donald Trump took office in December 2016.
During an interview with the Anadolu agency in Istanbul Barghouthi stressed that the current Israeli government led by Benjamin Netanyahu has no desire to allow the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.
“We are facing a dangerous Israeli project that must be met with strong and effective Palestinian unity” he added.
The Israeli government since the beginning of 2017 has issued many tenders for the construction of thousands of settlement units in the West Bank.
According to human rights organizations Israel’s settlement activity in 2017 is three times higher than that recorded in 2016.
