Israeli ministers say 22 new Jewish colonies have been approved on the occupied western bank – this is the largest expansion in decades.
According to Defense Minister Israel Katz and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, many have already existed as outposts, but now it is legal under the Israeli law.
The subject of colonies – is widely seen as illegal under international law, although Israel is controversial – one of the most controversies between Israel and Palestinians.
Catz said the move would “prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state that pose a threat to Israel, but the Palestinian president has called it” dangerous exacerbation. “
Israeli-anti-Vasadog Peace has now called it “the most extensive move” in more than 30 years and warned that it “dramatically remodel the Western Circle and further increase the job.”
In the Middle East of 1967, Israel has built over 700,000 Jews since the occupation of about 700,000 Jews and the East Jerusalem.
Continuous Israeli governments have allowed colonies to grow. However, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in the late 2022, has risen sharply after the right -wing, pro -Setler Coalition and return to power at the beginning of the Gaza War, triggered by the attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 in Hamas.
On Thursday, Israel’s Katz and Bezalel Smotrich – an ultrasanalist leader and colonial leader who controls the project in West Bank – officially confirmed the decision that the government had taken two weeks ago.
“The ministers have approved 22 new colonies in North Samaria (North West), and the strengthening of the East Axis of the Israeli state,” the statement said.
It highlighted what the ministers described as “historic benefit” for Homesh and Sa-Noor, which was evacuated by two colonies in the northern west bank as Israel was withdrawn from Gaza in 2005.
Two years ago, a group of colonists established an unauthorized outpost at the Jewish religious school and Homesh, reporting that nine were legal under the Israeli law.
Another settlement is reported to be built south in Mount Ewal near Nablus.
This decision is “a strategic move to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state that pose a threat to Israel and acts as a buffer against our enemies,” Katz said.
“This is Ion ionist, security and national response – and a clear decision about the future of the country,” he said.
Smotrich called it “once a generation decision” and “the sovereignty of the next step!”
But the Palestinian Authority spokesperson Mahmood Abbas – the parts of the West Bank are not controlled under the full Israeli regulation – called it a “dangerous exacerbation” and accused Israel of continuing to pull the area into “cycle of violence and instability.”
“This militant Israeli government is trying to prevent the establishment of an independent Palestinian state,” Nabil Abu Rudinah Reuters told News Agency.
Now the Director of Peace Lear Amhihai said: “The Israeli government is no longer acting: the acquisition of occupied areas and the expansion of settlements is its center goal.”
This stage is a blow to new efforts to revive the momentum on two-state compensation for decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict-the French-Sounds’ in the UN’s Prime Ministers in New York, New York, has been planned for the internationally approved formula for creating an independent Palestinian state with Israel.
Last year, the UN’s top court gave an advisory opinion that “Israel’s advanced presence in the occupied Palestinian region is illegal.” The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has said that Israeli colonies are “established and are being managed in violation of international law”, and Israel “should move all the colonists”.
The Prime Minister of Israel said at the time that the court made a “judgment of false” and demanded that “Jewish people are not an invader on their own land.”
