Riyadh, 23 March 2023 (TDI): The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Saudi Arabia condemned the decision of Israel’s government to resettle the people of Israel in the northern West Bank.
#Statement | The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia condemns in the strongest terms the decision taken by the Israeli occupying authorities to allow resettlement in the areas of the northern West Bank in the brotherly State of Palestine. pic.twitter.com/AtliTdwFdc
— Foreign Ministry 🇸🇦 (@KSAmofaEN) March 22, 2023
This is an illegal occupation of Israeli in Palestinian-based areas. Saudi Arabia stated that this is a blatant violation of international laws and basic human rights that would also contribute to a decline in regional and international peace efforts.
This would also impede political solutions based on the Arab Peace Initiative and guarantees the establishment of a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.
There is a movement of settlers that scored a victory in the parliament of Israel. This settler movement allowed the Israeli citizens resettlement in the Northwest Bank that evacuated in 2005.
United Nations (UN) Middle East Peace Envoy
The UN Middle East Peace Envoy, Tor Wennesland, said that this move of expansion of settlement is worrisome.
UN is also concerned about the authorization of nine settlements in the occupied West Bank and the construction of thousands of new housing units in existing settlements.
UN perceived it as a clear violation of international law, which is binding on every member state. The Israeli government in a parliament session paved the way to return the Jewish community to four settlements in the Northwest Bank.
This is a preliminary move it would become the cause of rising tensions over the government’s efforts to assert greater control over Palestinian territories.
This move was highly criticized by the people of Palestine, as protests from the Palestinians, took place, who want to establish an independent state in the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem.
Netanyahu’s office said in a statement that the Knesset vote “at long last put an end to the discriminatory and humiliating law that forbade Jews from living in areas of northern Samaria, which is part of its historic homeland”.
The Israeli military oversaw the West Bank since it was conquered from Jordan in the 1967 Middle East war, first has to approve access to the site for settlers at a highly volatile time in the region.
