The United Nations human rights office has issued a stark warning over the Israeli regime’s latest illegal settlement expansion scheme in the occupied West Bank.
The plan, which envisions the construction of thousands of new settler units between an existing settlement and the outskirts of East al-Quds in the West Bank, flagrantly violates international law, the office said on Friday.
Smotrich’s declaration: 'Burying' the Palestinian state
On Thursday, extremist Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich reaffirmed his commitment to the project, saying it would “bury” the prospect of a Palestinian state.
A spokesperson for the UN office stressed that the plan would fragment the West Bank into isolated patches of land.
The scheme’s implementation, the official said, would amount to a “war crime” due to its featuring the regime’s forcibly housing illegal settlers into “the territory it occupies.”
The plot also exposes nearby Palestinians to forced evictions, further cementing the criminal nature of its enforcement, the official noted.
The regime occupied the West Bank, including East al-Quds, in a heavily Western-backed war in 1967.
Ever since, it has been dotting the territory with illegal settlements that it would build after razing Palestinian homes. It has also imposed numerous restrictions on Palestinians’ freedom of movement across the territory.
Today, around 700,000 illegal settlers live amid 2.7 million Palestinians in the West Bank.
The international community has never recognized the occupation, denouncing the settlements as illegal due to their construction on occupied territory.
For their part, Palestinians have invariably stood by their right to self-determination and an independent state with East al-Quds as its capital.
The regime, though, tries to justify the settlements, citing “historical and biblical” claims, “security concerns,” and the notion that the West Bank is “disputed” rather than occupied.
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