Israeli settlement plans cause international criticism

The plan to expand the settlements in West Bank, which was presented by the right -wing extremist Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, triggered sharp criticism.

“The Federal Government decidedly rejects the announcements of the Israeli government to approve thousands of new residential units in Israeli settlements in the West Bank,” said the Federal Foreign Office in Berlin on Thursday evening. The EU foreign representative Kaja Kallas emphasized, the so-called project E1 undergrow “The two-state solution” and violate international law. UN General Secretary António Guterres warned that the plan would “put an end to the two-state solution”.

“Settlement construction violates international law and relevant resolutions of the UN Security Council,” said the Federal Foreign Office. “He complicates a negotiated two -state solution and an end to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank.”

“Planning for the settlement E1 and the expansion of Ma’ale Adumim would further restrict the mobility of the Palestinian population in the West Bank, the West Bank, in fact, divide the West Bank in half and cut off East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank,” said the Federal Foreign Office. “The Federal Government is calling on the Israeli government to hire the settlement construction.”

Smotrich had presented a plan to expand the settlements in the West Bank on Thursday. In the course of the E1 project, the construction of 3400 new residential units is planned. The minister presented the settlement plan when visiting the Israeli settlement Ma’ale Adumim east of Jerusalem. As part of the project, the Palestinian area should be split into two parts by building the apartments. “Those who want to recognize a Palestinian state today will receive an answer from us in the form of concrete facts: houses, districts, streets and Jewish families who build their lives,” said the minister.

Smotrich also called for an annexation of the West Bank: “I call on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to enforce Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria,” he said, using the biblical name for the West Bank occupied by Israel. The “hypocritical European state and government heads” should “no longer remain anything to acknowledge”.

Several states, including France, Great Britain and Canada, had announced in the past few weeks to officially recognize a Palestinian state in September.

With a view to the settlement plans, Kallas declared the EU to “refrain from continuing this decision”. Otherwise this would have “far -reaching consequences”.

The spokesman for UN General Secretary Guterres, Stéphane Dujarric, warned urgently if this plan was implemented, “this would separate the north and south of the West Bank”. He called on the Israeli government not to do this.

The Foreign Ministry of the Palestinian Authority condemned the statements of Smotrich and called for “international intervention and sanctions” to prevent the settlement project.

The Israeli anti-settlement organization Peace now warned that implementation of the settlement plan would be “fatal for the future of Israel and for every chance of a two-state solution”. According to the non -governmental organization, the plan is to be discussed in the Ministry of Defense next Wednesday and could then be put into force within a few months. Construction work could begin in about a year.

Israel had taken control of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 six -day war. According to international law, the establishment of Israeli settlements in these Palestinian areas is illegal. Despite protest from abroad, Israel has built dozens of settlements in West Bank in the past decades, where around 500,000 Israelis live alongside around three million Palestinians.