\n<\/p>\n
The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has condemned Israel\u2019s approval of 34 new settlements in the occupied West Bank, saying the decision violates international law.<\/p>\n
Israeli rights group Peace Now reported late on Thursday that the government had taken the decision \u201csecretly\u201d in early April. The decision was also reported widely by Israeli media outlets.<\/p>\n list of 3 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n The Palestinian Presidency\u2019s office condemned the plan as a \u201cflagrant violation of international \u2060law\u201d. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli government.<\/p>\n The OIC\u2019s general secretariat said in a statement on Friday that Israel, \u201cthe occupying power, has no sovereignty over the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Al-Quds (Jerusalem), and that all its measures aimed at changing the geographic and demographic reality there are null and void under international law\u201d.<\/p>\n The 34 settlements approved on Thursday come on top of 68 approved since Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s right-wing government came to power in 2022.<\/p>\n The OIC general secretariat also \u201cwarned of the gravity of the escalation of settlement policies, land confiscation, settler terrorism and attempts to annex and impose so-called Israeli sovereignty on the occupied West Bank, stressing that this aims to undermine the two-state solution and violate the rights of the Palestinian people\u201c.<\/p>\n Turkiye also criticised Israel\u2019s approval of the new settlements, calling it a \u201cserious violation of international law and UN resolutions\u201d.<\/p>\n Anouar el Anouni, the European Union\u2019s spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, condemned the approval of the new settlements.<\/p>\n \u201cThe European Union strongly condemns Israel\u2019s unilateral actions aiming to expand its presence in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, which the International Court of Justice\u2019s advisory opinion of 19 July 2024 declared to be unlawful, and urges the Government of Israel to reverse these decisions, to abide by its obligations under international law and to protect the Palestinian population of the occupied territories,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n Sweden\u2019s Ministry of Foreign Affairs also condemned the decision and said in a post on X that the settlements were a \u201cflagrant violation of international law and undermine the ongoing efforts for peace and stability in the region.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe call on the Government of Israel to reverse them immediately and to respect its international obligations,\u201d the ministry said.<\/p>\n Israel\u2019s Channel 24 reported that the security cabinet \u201csecretly\u201d approved the establishment of these new settlements during a recent session.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is the largest number of settlements ever approved in a single cabinet session,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n News website Ynet reported that military chief Eyal Zamir warned during the security cabinet meeting on April 1 that the army could \u201ccollapse\u201d because of increasing demands on its manpower. That included the legalisation of dozens of outposts, granting them official settlement status and therefore, protection from Israeli troops.<\/p>\n The approved sites include locations within Palestinian neighbourhoods in the northern West Bank and remote areas rarely reached by Israeli forces, Channel 24 said, adding that 10 of the 34 settlements are already existing outposts, which are illegal under Israeli law, but will now be retroactively legalised under the decision.<\/p>\n The remaining 24 are yet to be built. All Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank are illegal under international law.<\/p>\n The decision has not been officially published by any Israeli government body.<\/p>\n Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967. Excluding East Jerusalem, more than 500,000 Israelis now live there in settlements, among some three million Palestinians.<\/p>\n Settlement expansion has been a key policy under successive Israeli governments since 1967, but has accelerated significantly under the Netanyahu-led coalition.<\/p>\n Rights groups say approvals of new settlements, land seizures and settler violence have further increased since Israel\u2019s genocidal war on Gaza began in October 2023, which has killed more than 72,000 Palestinians.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has condemned Israel\u2019s approval of 34 new settlements in the occupied West Bank, saying the decision violates international law. Israeli rights group Peace Now reported late on Thursday that the government had taken the decision \u201csecretly\u201d in early April. The decision was also reported widely by Israeli media outlets. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18457,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle-east-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18456\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n
\u2018Serious violation of international law\u2019<\/h2>\n
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