A senior official of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) says the Israeli regime is trying to deceive the global public opinion by claiming that Palestinians will be allowed to build housing units in Area C in the occupied West Bank.
In a statement on Saturday, Ahmad Majdalani, a member of the PLO Executive Committee, said Area C, which constitutes 61 percent of the occupied West Bank, is a Palestinian territory in the first place, the Palestinian Wafa news agency reported.
However, he added, Israel demolishes Palestinian-owned structures, steals land and controls the area through illegal military laws in violation of international law.
In an attempt to blunt international opposition to Israeli settlement construction in the occupied territories, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is pushing through plans for more than 2,000 settler units in the occupied West Bank and at the same time has decided after many years to grant a rare authorization for 836 Palestinian homes in area C of the occupied West Bank.
The Palestinians firmly rejected the deal and insisted that all settlements are illegal and should be removed from the occupied territories.
Majdalani urged the international community not to believe the Israeli hoax regarding Palestinian construction in Area C but rather heed the Tel Aviv regime’s settlement construction and projects there in order to maintain lasting control over the area while prohibiting the Palestinian Authority from extending its rule.
The Palestinian presidency on Thursday strongly denounced Israel’s new plan of building at least 2,200 settler units and expanding settlement activities in al-Quds and elsewhere across the occupied Palestinian territories.
The presidency in a statement said that the Israeli construction activities are a clear and substantive violation of the Oslo Accords and in defiance of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334, which has pronounced settlements in the West Bank and East al-Quds “a flagrant violation under international law.”