Several Arab countries, including Egypt, Jordan, and Qatar, have condemned Israel’s plans to register parts of the occupied West Bank as Israeli state land.
The move is expected to facilitate further expansion of settlements in the Palestinian territory. Decades-old regulations that barred non-Muslims from buying land in the West Bank will no longer apply.
“This new Israeli government measure will allow large swathes of land in the West Bank to be registered officially for the first time since Israel captured the territory from Jordan in the 1967 war,” officials said. Israel’s Foreign Ministry has defended the step as an administrative measure intended to bring order. However, government ministers have indicated that the policy aims to strengthen Israeli control over the territory.
The Palestinian Authority has called for international intervention to prevent what it describes as the de facto start of annexation, warning that the step undermines the foundations of a future Palestinian state.
–ChannelAfrica–
