Türkiye condemns Israel’s new settlement plan in West Bank

ANKARA

The Turkish Foreign Ministry issued a strong condemnation on June 26, expressing its deep concern over the Israeli government’s recent approval of the construction of approximately 5,700 new residential units in the occupied West Bank.

In a statement released by the ministry, Ankara firmly denounced the move, emphasizing that the construction of illegal settlements poses a significant threat to the prospects of a two-state solution and long-lasting peace in the region. The statement highlighted that the latest development shattered previous records, with over 13,000 units approved since the beginning of the year alone.

“Israel must immediately put an end to these totally unacceptable settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territories, which usurp the rights of the Palestinian people in contravention to international law,” the statement read.

Multiple Israeli media outlets said the Defense Ministry planning committee that oversees settlement construction approved the Israeli far-right government’s plans. The units are at various stages of planning, and it was not immediately clear when construction would begin. COGAT, the defense body in charge of the planning committee, did not respond to requests for comment.

The international community, along with the Palestinians, considers settlement construction illegal or illegitimate and an obstacle to peace. Over 700,000 Israelis now live in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem — territories captured by Israel in 1967 and sought by the Palestinians for a future state.

“The Netanyahu government is moving forward with its aggression and open war against the Palestinian people,” said Wassel Abu Yousef, a Palestinian official in the West Bank. “We affirm that all settler colonialism in all the occupied Palestinian territories is illegitimate and illegal.”

Peace Now, an anti-settlement watchdog group, said Israel has now approved over 13,000 settlement housing units this year. That is nearly three times the number of homes approved in all of 2022 and marks the most approvals in any year since it began systematically tracking the planning procedures in 2012.

Israel’s government, which took office in late December, is dominated by religious and ultranationalist politicians with close ties to the settlement movement. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a firebrand settler leader, has been granted cabinet-level authority over settlement policies and has vowed to double the settler population in the West Bank.

Senior members have been pushing for increased construction and other measures to cement Israel’s control over the territory in response to a more than year-long wave of violence with the Palestinians.

Israel expanded its military activity in the West Bank in early 2022 in response to a series of deadly Palestinian attacks. Over 135 Palestinians have been killed in fighting in the West Bank and east Jerusalem this year. Roughly half of them were affiliated with militant groups, though Israel says that number is much higher. But Palestinian stone-throwers and people uninvolved in violence were also killed. Some 24 people have been killed in Palestinian attacks.