Ramallah, August 27 (RHC)-- A senior member of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) has censured Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to build hundreds of new settler units in the occupied West Bank as “irrational colonial escalation.”
“Corrupt Netanyahu proves that his extremist populist approach in his electoral race has no limits, and for that end, he is willing to wage wars and blow up the entire region,” Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the PLO's executive committee, said in a statement released on Monday.
She then accused Netanyahu of trying to win votes of settlers by stealing Palestinian land and resources in violation of international law.
Israeli right-wing alliance Yamina has proposed a plan to construct 113,000 housing units in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.
Ashrawi further noted that such colonial behavior has been progressive and systematic ever since the occupying regime of Israel was formed back in 1948, and is based primarily on the policy of ethnic cleansing, forced displacement, theft of land, resources and property, and the breach of international law and regulations, with the full political, legal and financial support of the United States. Israeli officials have approved plans for the construction of 641 new settler units in Jerusalem al-Quds.
“It is time to impose sanctions on Israel, and to hold it accountable for its deliberate violation of international law and resolutions in addition to humanitarian principles and values,” she concluded.
Earlier in the day, Netanyahu said he has instructed his staff to prepare plans for building 300 new housing units in Dolev settlement, located 27 kilometers (17 miles) northwest of Jerusalem al-Quds. He said the move comes in response to a purported bombing attack on Friday, which claimed the life of a 17-year-old Israeli girl and wounded her brother and father.
Israel deploys a large number of forces in an illegal settlement in the occupied West Bank following a bomb attack. More than 600,000 Israelis live in over 230 settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East Jerusalem al-Quds.
The UN Security Council has condemned Israel’s settlement activities in the occupied territories in several resolutions.
