Israel has announced plans to build one of its proposed new settlements in the occupied West Bank, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Wednesday, raising the stakes a day ahead of planned new Gaza peace talks seen as vital to preventing the regional conflict from escalating into full-scale war.
The extreme right-wing minister said that the move was a response to the actions of the Palestinian leadership from the West Bank and countries that recognized the Palestinian state.
– No anti-Israeli or anti-Zionist decision will stop the development of the settlement. We will continue to fight against the dangerous idea of a Palestinian state. That is my life’s mission – said Smotrich.
Most of the member states of the United Nations consider settlements built in the West Bank and other areas that Israel conquered in the 1967 Middle East War to be illegal under international law.
Israel disputes this, citing the Jewish people’s historical and biblical ties to the territory.
Israel announced in June that it would legalize five outposts in the West Bank, establish three new settlements and seize vast swathes of land where Palestinians want to create an independent state, further stoking Palestinian anger.
The Palestinian Authority, which has limited authority over the West Bank under Israeli military occupation, has reiterated that settlement building and the demolition of Palestinian homes constitute ethnic cleansing, which Israel denies.
In May, Spain, Ireland and Norway joined the majority of UN countries in recognizing a Palestinian state, seeing the establishment of such a state alongside Israel as the only way to ensure lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
Israel criticized their move as support for Hamas, the Palestinian group that controls Gaza, and condemned the Palestinian Authority for backing an international court case accusing it of genocide, which Israel strongly denies.
A new round of internationally mediated talks to try to end the 10-month war between Israel and Hamas and secure the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza are due to take place in Qatar on Thursday, although Hamas has said it will not attend.
The new 60-hectare settlement, called Nachal Heletz, will form part of the Gush Etzion settlement cluster and will connect the region to nearby Jerusalem, said Smotrich, who heads the pro-settler party and is a settler himself.
Peace Now, an Israeli NGO, said:
– Smotrich continues to promote de facto annexation, ignoring the UNESCO Convention to which Israel is a signatory, and we will all pay the price.
The war in Gaza threatens to spill over into a regional conflict involving Iran and its allies, including Hezbollah in Lebanon. Israel is bracing for significant attacks by Iran and Hezbollah following the assassination of a senior Hezbollah commander in Beirut and a Hamas political leader in Tehran.
Little progress has been made in achieving Palestinian statehood since the signing of the Oslo Accords in the early 1990s, Reuters reports.
