AhlulBayt News Agency: The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has strongly condemned Israel’s latest approval of new settlements in the occupied West Bank, saying the move clearly violates international law and relevant UN Security Council resolutions.
The OIC condemned “in the strongest terms” the approval of 34 new “colonial settlements” on the occupied Palestinian territory on Friday, a day after Israel announced the approval.
The approval is “in flagrant violation of international law and relevant UN Security Council resolutions, particularly Resolution 2334,” the OIC said in a statement. Resolution 2334, adopted in December 2016, states that Israel's settlement activity has “no legal validity,” demanding a stop to such activity.
The OIC emphasized that Israel, the occupying power, has no “sovereignty” over the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Al-Quds, and that “all its measures aimed at changing the geographic and demographic reality there are null and void under international law.”
The organization also warned 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 violate the rights of the Palestinian people, including their right to self-determination and the establishment of an independent state.
The OIC called on the international community to “shoulder its responsibilities towards putting an end to all Israeli crimes and violations against the Palestinian people, their land, and holy sites.”
According to the Times of Israel, the regime’s security cabinet approved the establishment of 34 new West Bank settlements in a meeting two weeks ago. The approval was just announced on Thursday.
The online newspaper, citing Peace Now organization, said that the measure constitutes the largest number of settlements approved at one time.
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