Australian FM 'unexpectedly' voices concern over Israeli West Bank settlements

Sputnik
Wed, 25 Jan 2017 19:35 UTC

© AFP 2016/ AHMAD GHARABLI

A recent Israeli decision to build more settlements in the West Bank could undermine a two-state solution, a spokesperson for Australia's Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said Wednesday, despite the fact that Australia was one of the few states to speak out against the UN resolution against Israeli settlement policy.

On Tuesday, local media reported that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Avigdor Liebermanapproved the building of 2,500 housing units in the territory of the West Bank.

"This is a significant expansion deep in the West Bank that does have the capacity to undermine the credibility of a two-state solution," the spokesperson told the ABC News broadcaster.

The spokesperson also called on both sides "to avoid unilateral actions that diminish the prospects of a negotiated two-state solution."

On December 23, 2016, the UN Security Council voted 14-0, with the United States abstaining, to pass a resolution calling on Israel to immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the West bank and east Jerusalem.

Comment: For more on Israel's outrageous behavior see: Israeli minister outlines plan to annex West Bank settlement after Trump takes office

"It does not violate international law because that would suggest that we occupy a state. We don't. There was never a Palestinian state," Minister of Education and leader of the Jewish Home Party Naftali Bennett told The Washington Post. Bennett said he would put a vote to parliament after Trump's inauguration to annex the settlement Ma'ale Adumim.

The annexation is the first part of Bennett's plans to bring full Israeli law to an area designated Area C under the Oslo Accords with a population of 500,000 Israelis and 70,000 to 100,000 Palestinians. "They would represent a 1 percent addition to Israel's population, which is negligible," Bennett said.