RAMALLAH, Saturday, March 23, 2024 (WAFA) – The Arab Parliament today strongly condemned the decision made by hard-right Israeli Minister of Finance, Bezalel Smotrich, ordering the seizure of 8,000 dunums of land in the Jordan Valley, east of the occupied West Bank for the benefit of colonial settlements.
Parliament said in a statement that the ongoing Israeli policy of seizing Palestinian-owned lands and building and expanding Israeli colonial outposts only aims to create new facts on the ground, which constitutes a flagrant violation of international law and international legitimacy resolutions.
It added that “the negotiations to stop the Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip must be accompanied by a cessation of all types of Israeli aggression against the Palestinian land and people.”
The Parliament urgently called on the international community to assume its responsibilities and take a concrete measure to put an end to the occupation’s violations and war crimes.
The Arab Parliament called on the international community and the Security Council to confront these crimes, force the occupying authority to submit to international will, and respect United Nations resolutions on preventing colonial expansion, so as not to drag the region into more violence and instability.
IMEMC: On Thursday, illegal paramilitary Israeli colonizers attacked Palestinian cars in Wadi Al-Haseen, east of Hebron, while the occupation forces prevented a large number of citizens from reaching their homes.
On Tuesday, illegal paramilitary Israeli colonizers occupied twenty Palestinian residential sheds in the Al-Mo’arrajat area, northwest of Jericho, in the northeastern part of the occupied West Bank.
All of Israel’s colonies in the occupied West Bank, including those in and around occupied East Jerusalem, are illegal under International Law, the Fourth Geneva Convention in addition to various United Nations and Security Council resolutions. They also constitute war crimes under International Law.
Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention states: “The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.” It also prohibits the “individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory.”
