The Israeli government announced on Friday the seizure of 800 hectares of land in the Jordan Valley, in the occupied West Bank, the same day as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Israel.
According to the Israeli anti-settlement organization Peace Now, this is the largest land seizure in Palestinian territory since the Oslo peace accords (1993).
A figure of the Israeli extreme right and the West Bank colonization movement, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced
“the declaration of approximately 8,000 dunums (800 hectares, Editor's note) as state land (of the State of Israel) in the Jordan Valley
,” according to a press release from his services.
This is
“a spectacular and important new measure for
Jewish colonization” in the West Bank, the text adds.
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Israeli colonization in the West Bank (including annexed East Jerusalem) is illegal under international law, regularly reminds the UN, which denounces the entire Jewish colonization enterprise in the occupied Palestinian territories as one of the main obstacles to establishment of a definitive peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
In a press release, the NGO Peace Now describes
the date chosen for this announcement, concomitant with the visit of Antony Blinken, as
“provocative” .
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Bezalel Smotrich
“are determined to fight against the whole world and against the interests of the Israeli people for the benefit of the interests of a handful of settlers who receive thousands of dunums as if there were nothing had no political conflict to resolve, nor any war to end
,” adds the organization.
Disagreements between Israel and Washington
Antony Blinken met Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday in Tel Aviv against a backdrop of deep differences between the Israeli government and Washington, its main international supporter, over the conduct of the war that Israel has been waging in Gaza since the attack launched on October 7 by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, which left more than 1,160 dead on the Israeli side.
In retaliation, Israel vowed to annihilate Hamas and launched a vast offensive which has so far left nearly 32,000 dead in Gaza, according to the Islamist movement's Health Ministry.
As violence intensifies in the West Bank in the shadow of the war in Gaza, the United States has taken financial sanctions against certain Israeli settlers described as
“extremists”
.
“At a time when some in Israel and around the world seek to undermine our right to Judea and Samaria (the West Bank, editor’s note), we are promoting the installation of settlements through hard work and strategically throughout the country
,” and
“This announcement will allow us to continue building and strengthening the Jordan Valley
,” said Bezalel Smotrich, according to his office’s statement.
The establishment and expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories constitutes
“a war crime”
and
“risks eliminating any practical possibility of establishing a viable Palestinian state
,” a March 8 report warned. Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.