The Hamas Movement has described as “a war crime” the Israeli decision to have the settlements and outposts in Area C of the occupied West Bank registered with the Israeli ministry of justice instead of the army’s civil administration.
In a press release on Saturday Hamas spokesman Abdul-Latif al-Qanua said that war minister Naftali Bennett’s decision to allow the registering of annexed lands in the West Bank with the ministry of justice portends intents to annex more areas of the West Bank and displace the local residents.
Qanua called such step “a war crime against the Palestinian land and human and persistence in changing the geography of the West Bank.
He stressed the need to prosecute Israeli war criminals at the International Criminal Court and give the Palestinian resistance a free hand to confront Israel’s crimes with all means in order to foil its plots.
The Hebrew media revealed on Friday that Bennett had issued his directions to initiate the registering of settlements in Area C with the ministry of justice instead of the civil administration the Hebrew media revealed on Friday.
The Israeli civil administration is the Israeli war ministry’s body responsible for Israeli settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Israel Hayom newspaper reported that Bennett recently carried out a series of discussions with officials within his ministry in order to allow the Israeli settlers to register the settlement lands with the ministry of justice instead of registering them through the civil administration.
Bennett asked the officials to study a law allowing Israeli settlers to have the same privileges as other Jewish citizens of Israel.
With this new measure Bennett is seeking to reduce the waiting times for the approval of settlement plans applied for by Israeli settlers.
“This measure is related to imposing procedural sovereignty” Bennett asserted according to Israel Hayom.
Such measures Israel Hayom disclosed would facilitate obtaining housing loans by settlers.
