Qatar has warned against Israeli plans to approve the construction of about 4000 housing units for Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank describing the step as “a flagrant violation of the international law.”
In a statement on Friday Qatar’s ministry of foreign affairs called on the international community to take urgent action to prevent Israel from sanctioning the new plans and pressure it to stop its settlement expansion policies in the occupied Palestinian territories.
The foreign ministry stressed that Israel’s settlement plans “pose a serious threat to the international efforts that aim to achieve the two-state solution and resume the peace process on the basis of the international resolutions and the Arab peace initiative.”
The ministry reiterated Qatar’s unwavering supportive position on the justice of the Palestinian cause and the Palestinian people’s legitimate rights especially their right to establish their independent state.
Israel is set to advance plans for the construction of nearly 4000 illegal settler homes in the West Bank according to remarks on Friday by the Israeli interior minister.
Interior minister Ayelet Shaked a staunch supporter of settlements wrote in a Tweet that a planning committee would convene next week to approve 4000 homes calling settlement construction in the West Bank a “basic required and obvious thing”.
Israel’s Haaretz newspaper reported that the Israeli army’s civil administration would meet next Thursday to advance 1452 units and that another 2536 units would be also approved soon by Israeli army minister Benny Gantz.
Israeli settlements are fortified Jewish-only housing complexes built on annexed Palestinian land in violation of international law. Between 600000 and 750000 Jewish settlers live in at least 250 illegal settlements across the occupied West Bank including east Jerusalem.
