Washington, Berlin, Paris, Rome and London on Tuesday criticized Israel’s decision to legalize nine settlements in the occupied West Bank.
By Le Figaro with AFP
Published 2/14/2023 at 3:01 PM, updated 2/14/2023 at 3:13 PM
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Houses in the Silwan neighborhood of Jerusalem on January 2, 2023. AHMAD GHARABLI / AFP
Washington, Berlin, Paris, Rome and London said they “strongly opposed” Israel’s decision on Tuesday, February 14, to legalize nine settlements in the occupied West Bank and build new housing in existing settlements, “reducing tensions between Israelis and Palestinians only intensified”. “.
“We firmly oppose these unilateral actions, which only increase tensions between Israelis and Palestinians and undermine efforts to achieve the negotiated two-state solution,” the five countries’ diplomatic chiefs wrote in the joint statement.
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Occupation of the West Bank since 1967
The measures announced by Israel’s Security Cabinet on Sunday February 12 were presented in response to a series of Palestinian attacks in East Jerusalem, including one that killed three people on Friday February 10. The nine settlements in question were previously illegal under Israeli law as they were built without government consent, while the UN says any Jewish settlement venture in the West Bank is illegal under international law.
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“Deeply concerned” by Israel’s announcement, the United States and the four European countries recalled in their statement that “a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East must be achieved through direct negotiations between the parties”. “We continue to closely monitor developments in the situation on the ground, which undermine the viability of the two-state solution and the stability of the region as a whole,” they wrote. Israel has occupied the West Bank since the June 1967 Arab-Israeli War. More than 475,000 Israelis live in settlements in the West Bank (excluding East Jerusalem), where 2.8 million Palestinians live.
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