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Türkiye condemns Israel’s controversial settlement plan in West Bank

Türkiye has condemned Israel’s approval of plans to build more than 3,000 homes in a controversial settlement project in the occupied West Bank.

“This step, which will effectively separate the West Bank from East Jerusalem, disregards international law and United Nations resolutions, targets the territorial integrity of the State of Palestine, the basis for a two-state solution and hopes for lasting peace,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement issued on Aug. 14.

The only way to achieve a just and lasting peace in the region is “the establishment of an independent and sovereign Palestinian State with geographical integrity, based on the 1967 borders and with East Jerusalem as its capital,” it added.

Ankara reaffirmed its support for the “Palestinian people’s just cause and determined struggle.”

Earlier in the day, Israeli media reported that Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich approved the construction of 3,400 settler units in Maale Adumim, east of Jerusalem, and thousands more in surrounding areas.

The so-called E1 project aims to split the West Bank into two parts, severing connections between its northern and southern cities and isolating East Jerusalem.

The construction on a tract of land east of Jerusalem has been under consideration for more than two decades, and is especially controversial because it is one of the last geographic links between the major cities of Ramallah and Bethlehem.

The two cities are 22 kilometers (14 miles) apart by air. But once the E1 settlement project is completed, it will destroy the possibility of a direct route and will force Palestinians traveling between cities to continue taking a wide detour several kilometers out of their way, passing through multiple checkpoints, a process that adds hours to the journey.

The E1 plan is expected to receive final approval on Aug. 20, capping off 20 years of bureaucratic wrangling.

Rights groups swiftly condemned the plan. Peace Now called it “deadly for the future of Israel and for any chance of achieving a peaceful two-state solution,” which is “guaranteeing many more years of bloodshed.”

The Palestinian Authority and Arab countries have condemned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s statement in an interview that he was “very” attached to the vision of a Greater Israel.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also condemned the announcement and reiterated U.N. calls on the Israeli government to halt all settlement activity, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

The settlements violate international law, “further entrench the occupation, fuel tensions, and systematically erode the viability of a Palestinian state as part of a two-state solution,” Dujarric said.

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