The Israel occupation approves 10 new settlement plans

The Israeli occupation authorities approved, on Monday, a group of settlement plans that aim to build new settlement units in Israeli settlements established on Palestinian-owned lands in the West Bank, Applied Research Institute - Jerusalem (ARIJ) said in a report on Tuesday.

ARIJ pointed out that the plans aim at expanding settlements established on the lands of Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Al-Bireh, Jenin, and Salfit. It added that seven out of nine settlements established on the lands west of the separation wall will be expanded as well.

The institute underlined that the Israeli occupation authorities approved the building of 1,061 new settlement units in the illegal settlement of Beitar Illit established on Palestinian-owned lands in Bethlehem, in addition to several units in Mifu Huron and Efrat settlements.

It added that settlement plans in the illegal settlements of Shaked, Tal Menashe, and Kiryat Arba would be approved, stressing that all Israeli settlement activities across the West Bank and Jerusalem are deemed illegal under international law and international humanitarian law.

ARIJ confirmed that the construction and expansion of the settlements by the Israeli occupation authorities violates many basic systems of international humanitarian law, including Security Council resolutions, the Hague Convention of 1907, the Fourth Geneva Convention on the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, and Resolution No. 242 of 1967, which calls for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the territories it has occupied, and stresses the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war, and the need to work for a just and lasting peace.

ARIJ also referred to Resolution No. 446 of 1979, which affirmed the illegality of the Israeli settlement policy in the occupied Arab territories, including Jerusalem, and considered it a dangerous obstacle to peace in the Middle East, and Resolution No. 452 of 1979, which calls for a halt to settlement violations in the Palestinian territories occupied in 1967, including Jerusalem, and Resolution No. 465 of 1980, which called on the Israeli occupation to stop settlements, refrain from building new settlements, and dismantling established one, and also called on member states not to assist the Israeli occupation in building settlements.

ARIJ also drew attention to Article No. 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, which states that the occupying power has no right to transfer its citizens to the occupied territories, or to take any action that leads to demographic change in it, and Article 147 of the same treaty, which states that the destruction and usurpation of property in a manner that is not justified by military necessity and on a large scale in an illegal and arbitrary manner is a grave breach, and Security Council Resolution 2334 of 2016, which affirmed that all Israeli settlement attacks in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, are illegal under international law, and constitute a major obstacle to achieve peace on the basis of the two-state solution.