The Palestinian ministry of foreign affairs held the US administration responsible for the growth of Israeli settlements along the occupied West Bank.
In a statement, the ministry said that the settlements were being established under the umbrella of US President Donald Trump’s administration, which is “biased to the occupation, in violation of international law and international legitimacy resolutions.”
The ministry called on the UN Security Council, and countries that claim to be keen on achieving peace in the Middle East, “to act quickly to force the occupation authorities to comply with the will of the international community and to implement the relevant resolutions of international legitimacy, mainly Resolution 2334.”
The ministry also condemned in the strongest terms the confiscation of large plots of land in the West Bank for settlement purposes. It pointed to the occupation forces’ seizure of lands belonging to the village of al-Lubban al-Gharbieh, near the city of Ramallah, for the benefit of a nearby illegal Israeli settlement. The ministry denounced as well Israeli authorities’ plan to seize more than 350 dunums of land in Khilet Makhoul, located in the northern Jordan Valley.
The foreign ministry described the demolition of two Palestinian houses in Beit Hanina and the displacement of their families with infants as “an integral part of the policy of ethnic cleansing and an episode in a series of incursions, aimed at emptying the occupied East Jerusalem and its surrounding from indigenous citizens.”
