The acceleration of West Bank settlement activity is fueling Palestinian violence, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned on Wednesday afternoon.
“Israel's persistent expansion of its settlements,” Guterres said, “deepens humanitarian needs, significantly fuels violence, increases the risk of confrontation, further entrenches the occupation, and undermines the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination.”
He spoke out just two days after Israel advanced plans for 5,700 new settler homes in Area C of the West Bank.
'Settlements are a flagrant violation of international law'
Guterres “condemned” the advancement of the plans, which included the deposit of plans which when approved would retroactively legalize three outposts as new neighborhoods of the Eli settlement.
“Settlements are a flagrant violation of international law and relevant UN resolutions,” said Guterres as he urged “Israel to halt and reverse the expansion of settlements” and “to immediately and completely cease all settlement activities.”
“These ongoing settlements are eroding the possibility of establishing a contiguous and viable sovereign Palestinian State, based on the pre-1967 lines, thereby,” Guterres said.
Just one day earlier, Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan told the UN Security Council that building in Judea and Samaria, the term right-wing Israelis use for the West Bank, “would not stop.”
Erdan rejected any suggestion that Israeli settlement activity sparked Palestinian violence.
“These steps are not an impediment to peace. Constructing homes in already existing communities in Judea and Samaria is not an inflammatory step,” Erdan said.
When the international community constantly places the blame on Israel while it ignores the root cause of the conflict, Erdan said. He asked what the world expects, does it want the hills of Judea and Samaria would be turned into “terror launch pads” such as what happened in Gaza?
Even now the Palestinian Authority refuses to take action against Jihadists and the terror infrastructure is being built under its noses, he said.