Palestine, Sep 2: Palestinian officials have on Monday denounced Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s repeated claims of a vow to capture all illegal settlements of Israel in occupied West Bank, cautioning such a step won’t lead to “any peace”.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s spokesperson Nabil Abu Rudeineh has Netanyahu’s Sunday declaration was a “continuation of attempts to create an unacceptable faith”.
Rudeineh said any such attempt would “not lead to any peace, security or stability”. Under international rules and law, the settlements are illegal, as well as, major unbalanced blocks to an Israeli-Palestinian peace settlement.
Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) secretary-general Saeb Erekat has called on the international community to pursue actions after Netanyahu’s statements, according to Al-Jazeera news reports.
“Those who claim concern after every Israeli settlement announcement should face reality: Israel’s PM is announcing further annexation of occupied territory,” Erekat wrote on Twitter.
“Enough impunity: There’s an international responsibility to impose sanctions on Israel after decades of systematic crimes,” he added.
The Israeli Prime Minister’s reiteration of a pledge to annex illegal West Bank settlement came amidst a campaign run to draw supporters’ attention of far-right factions to his led Likud Party in the coming September 17 election.
“With the help of God we will apply Jewish sovereignty to all communities, as part of the [biblical] Land of Israel, and as part of the state of Israel,” he told audiences on Sunday at the West Bank settlement of Elkana.