Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s plans to create “facts on the ground” to prevent a Palestinian state are not being well received internationally. “The Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the regime that’s associated with these settlements go against international law,” UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said on Aug. 14 when asked about Smotrich’s announcement the day before of a new settlement block to be built outside of East Jerusalem. “Settlements, to state the obvious, further entrench the occupation, put the prospect of a two-state solution even further away. And as you said, if this went ahead ... it would sever the northern and southern West Banks. I think ... as the Israeli finance minister and the Palestinians and other NGOs all agree, it would put an end to prospects of a two-state solution.”
The UN human rights office said on Aug. 15 that Smotrich’s plan is illegal under international law, and would put nearby Palestinians at risk of forced eviction, which it described as a war crime, reported Reuters. The UN rights office spokesperson said the plan would break the West Bank into isolated enclaves and that it was “a war crime for an occupying power to transfer its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.”
