Bureau for Defending Land and Resisting Settlements stresses international rejection of Israeli occupation’s plan to annex West Bank areas

OCCUPIED AL-QUDS, (ST)- The PLO National Bureau for Defending Land and Resisting Settlements has affirmed that the Israeli occupation’s announced plan to proceed with annexing significant parts of the occupied West Bank next July is a flagrant violation of international laws and a blatant exploitation of the world’s preoccupation with confronting coronavirus epidemic. The Bureau said that the Israeli plan has received wide international rejection.

In its weekly report, issued on Saturday, the bureau said that ambassadors of European countries namely Britain, Germany, France, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Sweden and Belgium in addition to the Ambassador of the European Union have submitted a formal protest to the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in which they affirmed that “annexing any part of the West Bank constitutes a blatant violation of international law and it will have very serious impacts on stability in the region.”

The report indicated that 130 British MPs from different parties have sent a letter to UK’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson urging him to impose sanctions on “Israel” if it annexes West Bank areas.

 According to the report, Michael Lynk, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territories warned that the new Israeli annexation plan will create “a cascade of bad human rights consequences” and will deal a severe blow to the international order.

The report said that the UN Humanitarian Coordinator Jamie McGoldrick said in the bi-monthly report issued by the office of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in occupied Palestinian territories called on the occupation authorities to stop demolishing the houses of the Palestinians in the West Bank and in the East of occupied al-Quds.

The Bureau’s report also welcomed the ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda’s position to probe the Israeli occupation crimes and violations in the occupied Palestinian territories.

The Israeli occupation authorities continue to demolish Palestinian homes and facilities in the West Bank, especially in the Jordan Valley. They sent warnings to Palestinians on the demolition of 22 houses and facilities, said the report, pointing out that the occupation also continues to seize Palestinian lands in the towns of Beit Sahour, Jabal Abu Ghneim, Sour Baher, Jabal Al-Mukaber, and Beit Hanina in occupied al-Quds to establish settlement roads that isolate the city from its Palestinian vicinity.

 Israeli settlers continue their attacks against West Bank cities and towns under the protection of the occupation forces,  the report went on to say. It added that the settlers razed Palestinian lands in the towns of Burin in Nablus as well as in Al-Jab’a and Wadi Fukin in Bethlehem and in Deir Istiya in Salfit. They cut off 40 perennial olive trees in the town of Al-Sawiya to the south of Nablus, stormed the towns of Sura and Tal to the west of the city and attacked the Palestinians’ homes and properties.

Hamda Mustafa