Hawzah News Agency (Occupied Palestine) - The Palestinian leadership strongly condemns the approval of nearly three thousand illegal settlement units in the past 48 hours by the Israeli government.
Israel’s Prime Minister is expanding illegal settlements in the heart of the occupied West Bank, like “Beit El”, for cynical election calculations that leverage traditional financial and political support from senior US administration officials, including Jared Kushner and David Friedman.
Constructing settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including Quds (Jerusalem), is a grave violation of international humanitarian law that the Rome Statute specifically considers a war crime. This is a criminal act of hostility and aggression that requires immediate and unequivocal international steps to ensure accountability, including imposing sanctions.
The sanctions of the Israeli government reflect the willful commitment of the Israeli political establishment to the agenda of colonial control, land grab, and permanent denial of the Palestinian people’s inalienable rights to self-determination and freedom.
They are also part of an escalating and relentless campaign of oppression and systematic violence aimed at breaking the will of the Palestinian people and dictating facts that are irreconcilable with a future of peace and stability in the region. These are the actions of a group committed to permanent conflict, whose abject disregard to legality and morality are practically and brutally evident.
In this regard, the Palestinian leadership welcomes the principled statements of condemnation by responsible international actors, including the European Union, France, and others, which reflect their commitment to international law and the requirements of peace.
Further, we call on all states that have reaffirmed their positions to take a more proactive and effective role in protecting the rules-based international order by holding Israel accountable for its wanton violations of international law and Palestinian rights.
Without exacting a political and financial price to these egregious actions, and in light of the ideological partnership between Israeli right-wing elements and the Trump administration, Israel will continue to accelerate its destructive policies and escalate its unabashed aggression.