Palestine urges US pressure on Israel to stop fresh settlement plans
RAMALLAH, Palestine (AA) – Palestine has called on the US administration to step up pressure on Israel to halt plans for new settlement building in the occupied West Bank.
The US President concluded a maiden visit to the Middle East region last week that included Israel, the West Bank and Saudi Arabia.
“As soon as Biden concluded his visit to the region, the occupation government approved new settlement plans in various parts of the West Bank,” Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said at a Cabinet meeting, according to the state news agency Wafa.
“Israel has announced plans to seize hundreds of dunums of Palestinian land in the Bethlehem and Ramallah districts in the occupied West Bank in order to build 30,000 new settlement housing units,” he said.
On his Israel tour, Biden had expressed deep commitment and support to the Zionist state. “We’ll continue to advance Israel’s integration into the region and the relationship between the US and Israel is deeper and stronger in my view than it’s ever been,” the president had said.
The Palestinian premier appealed to the US administration to intervene to stop Israeli schemes “that would undermine the two-state solution.”
“Israel must immediately stop all settlement activities, as demanded in United Nations resolutions, in order to preserve the right of the Palestinian people to establish their independent state,” Shtayyeh said.
Following his brief stopover meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank on Friday, Biden had said that the two-state solution was “so far away.” However, he reiterated his support for the two-state solution “along the pre-1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps.”
According to Israel human rights NGO, Peace Now, around 666,000 settlers live in 145 settlements and 140 outposts -not licensed by the Israeli government- in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
International law views the West Bank and East Jerusalem as occupied territories and considers all Israeli settlement-building activity illegal.
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