Middle East
Guterres urges Israel to halt settlement activities
UN Secretary-General António Guterres sends a clear message to the Israeli government. photo
© Lujain Jo/AP/dpa
Prime Minister Netanyahu’s government wants to facilitate settlement construction in the West Bank. This caused international criticism. The Secretary-General of the United Nations is also concerned.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres has called on Israel’s right-wing religious government to “immediately and completely stop all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territories.” That’s what his deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said in New York. Guterres was deeply concerned by the Israeli government’s decision to change the settlement planning process. The changes are expected to accelerate the progress of Israeli settlement plans in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government approved steps to facilitate settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank on Sunday. Pro-settler Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced plans to build thousands of new housing units in the West Bank. The Palestinian Foreign Ministry condemned the decision as dangerous. Internationally there is a lot of criticism of Israel’s settlement construction.
Guterres is also deeply concerned that the Israeli authorities plan to build more than 4,000 settlement units over the next week, Haq said, according to the UN statement. The settlements represented “a blatant violation of international law”. “They are a major obstacle to the realization of a viable two-state solution and a just, lasting and comprehensive peace.”
Five dead in military operation in the West Bank
At least five Palestinians were killed in a fierce firefight with the Israeli army in Jenin on the occupied West Bank on Monday. Jenin is considered a stronghold of militant Palestinians. Again and again there are confrontations with the Israeli military in the city. The army has been conducting raids in the West Bank since a series of attacks on Israelis.
Israel conquered the West Bank and East Jerusalem during the 1967 Six Day War. Almost 600,000 Israelis live there today in more than 200 settlements. In 2016, the UN Security Council labeled these settlements a violation of international law and called on Israel to halt all settlement activity. The Palestinians want to set up their own states in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem.