The Palestinian Foreign Ministry today warned of the dangers and consequences of the deepening and expansion of settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, as well as Israel’s ongoing calls to annex the settlements to the occupation.
The ministry said in a statement that it takes very seriously calls still coming from a number of Israeli officials and members of the Knesset to annex the settlements in the West Bank and impose Israeli sovereignty over them, which reveals the true face to face with the intentions of the occupying state and its insistence on practicing the worst forms of gradual annexation by infiltrating the occupied West Bank and giving it strategic depth for settlement, closing the door on any possibility of realizing the two-state solution and embodying a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital on earth.
The Ministry urged the international community to take these calls very seriously and not to underestimate them or mitigate their effects. It also called on the Security Council to take the necessary steps to implement and enforce its resolution No. 2334.
The statement emphasizes that the lack of international responsibility and accountability of the occupying state for its violations and crimes, primarily the crimes of the settlement and ethnic cleansing, encourages Israeli officials to continue their calls and measures for the annexation of the West Bank, noting that these calls represent an ongoing public campaign incitement, accompanied by a series of laws and laws that have been passed by the Knesset in this regard, including what has come to be known as the “apartheid” law, and also related to practical measures on the ground to deepen and expand settlements that are clearly absorbing the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
