Palestinian official: Israel's settlement increase proves adoption of apartheid policy

Settler protests in the E1 area are a reflection of Israel’s increasing apartheid policy, member of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) Mustafa Al-Barghouti said.

Israeli settlers protested in the E1 area, adjacent to the Beit El settlement, which is located in the hills of East Jerusalem and near Al-Beireh, a Palestinian city in the occupied West Bank. Israel is planning to annex this Palestinian area and add it to the Beit El settlement, Al-Barghouti explained.

Early this week, Israeli occupation distributed evacuation orders to about 350 Palestinian residents in the area calling them to leave with their homes and their animals. All of them are Bedouins who have been living in the area for decades, or since before the Israeli occupation.

This area, Al-Batghouti reiterated, is Palestinian land and the Israeli plans there aimed at devoting occupation and apartheid policy.

Al-Barghouti said the Israeli government has legalised a massive settlement project that would displace at least eight Palestinian villages in the area in order to set up a settlement belt that would undermine any chance to establish a viable Palestinian state in the future.

The official, who is the head of the Palestinian National Initiative party, stated that Israeli settlement in the occupied Palestinian lands has increased 135 per cent during the ongoing round of peace talks.

He said the Israeli occupation does not want peace, but is exploiting the time of the talks in order to expand settlements. He called for increasing the popular resistance to undermine the occupation plans.