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Turkey censures Israel’s new settlement plan

Friday, 30 January 2015 5:41 PM [ Last Update: Friday, 30 January 2015 5:41 PM ]

A view of the illegal Israeli settlement of Givat Ze’ev in West Bank

Turkey has censured the Tel Aviv regime’s plan to construct more illegal settler units in the occupied West Bank.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry in a statement released on Friday condemned Israel’s plan to build some 430 new illegal settler units in four existing settlements across the West Bank.

“Israel’s illegal decision is unacceptable for us and the international community,” said the statement, adding, “This Israeli action shows that they neglect the Palestinians’ recent international initiative.”

Under Israel’s new settlement expansion plan, 112 new illegal settler units will be built in Geva Binyamin, also known as Adam, 156 in Elkana, 78 in Alfei Menashe and 84 in Kiryat Arba settlements.

The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) has denounced the move with Wassel Abu Yusef, a PLO official, saying that the expansion of settlements amounted to a “war crime.”

“What the Israelis announced is part of a wider war... against the Palestinian people,” Abu Yusef added.

He warned that the Israeli settlement issue would be taken to the International Criminal Court.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon recently said that Palestine would formally join the ICC on April 1, where it plans to file complaints against Israeli crimes.

More than half a million Israelis live in over 120 settlements built since Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank, including East al-Quds (Jerusalem), in 1967.

The Israeli settlements are considered to be illegal by much of the international community because the territories were captured by Israel in a war in 1967 and are thus subject to the Geneva Conventions, which forbid construction on occupied lands.

MP/HSN/SS

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