Israel authorizes 5 settlement outposts in occupied West Bank
The Israeli cabinet has approved the "legalization" of five settlement outposts in the occupied West Bank, and further sanctions on the Palestinian Authority for supporting cases against the regime in international courts.
"The Security Cabinet authorized one outpost for every country that unilaterally recognized Palestine as a state in the last month," Israel’s extremist finance minister Bezalel Smotrich said late Thursday night.
Last month, Spain, Ireland and Norway formally recognized the Palestinian state, joining over 140 UN member states that have recognized its statehood over the past four decades.
Slovenia and Malta have also indicated they plan to formally recognize the state of Palestine.
The five settlement outposts are Evyatar, Givat Assaf, Sde Efraim, Heletz, and Adorayim.
The extremist minister said that sanctions against the Palestinian authority came after "weeks of discussion" and were an "appropriate response" to the Palestinian Authority’s activity against the regime at the International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Court, and the United Nations.
The sanctions include the cancellation of exit visas for PA officials.
Further restrictions were also declared regarding Palestinian construction in Area B of the West Bank, which is under the Palestinian Authority’s administration, in violation of signed agreements.
According to the Smotrich-proposed measures, the so-called Higher Planning Council for the West Bank is also expected to meet to advance the approval of thousands of additional settler units in the occupied territory.
More than 600,000 Israelis live in over 230 settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the West Bank and East al-Quds.
The international community views the settlements – hundreds of which have been built across the West Bank since Israel’s occupation of the territory in 1967 – as illegal under international law and the Geneva Conventions due to their construction on the occupied territories.
Palestinians want the West Bank as part of a future independent state with East al-Quds as its capital.
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