News - Middle East: The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates has condemned Israel’s decision to publish tenders for more than 1,000 new settler units in the occupied West Bank. 

In a statement released on Monday, the ministry said, “Israel flouts all international positions and demands, the signed agreements, and United Nations resolutions that call for and demand the cessation of settlement activity, as it is illegal, illegitimate, and a crime that threatens to undermine the principle of the two-state solution and the opportunity to establish the Palestinian state on the ground with East al-Quds as its capital, in accordance with United Nations resolutions.”

It said Israel “is taking advantage of double international standards to implement more of its expansionist colonial plans, and to move forward with the creeping gradual annexation of the occupied West Bank.” 

The ministry said settlement expansion was “a blatant challenge to the will of the international community, and a disregard for the American and international positions that warn of their dangers on the conflict, and a dangerous escalation of the situation.”

“Cessation to all forms of settlement activities is the correct approach to restoring confidence between the Palestinian and Israeli parties in preparation for launching a real negotiated political process that puts an end to the Israeli escalation and leads to resolving the conflict through peaceful political means.”

The tenders have been issued despite the regime’s commitment made in US-backed talks in February that discussion of new settlement units would be halted for the next four months.

The Israel Land Authority reportedly published on its website separate tenders for 1,248 new housing units.

Emboldened by Washington’s asupport, Israel has stepped up settlement construction in defiance of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334, which pronounced settlements in the West Bank and East al-Quds “a flagrant violation under international law.”

About 600,000 Israelis live in over 230 settlements built since the 1967 occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East al-Quds.

Palestinians want the West Bank as part of a future independent Palestinian state, with East al-Quds as its capital. The last round of Israeli-Palestinian talks collapsed in 2014. Among the major sticking points in those negotiations was Israel’s settlement expansion.

Source: Press TV