Israel slams international criticism of illegal settlements

The international communities’ criticism of illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank is “baseless”, Israeli media reported the country’s foreign ministry saying on Friday.

On Thursday, the US had described the construction of new residential units in the illegal settlement of Gilo as “provocative and counterproductive”.

The Times of Israel said that a statement by the Israeli foreign ministry had rejected an American argument that plans to build settlements in occupied East Jerusalem undermine the prospects of a two-state solution, calling the argument “factually baseless”.

Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported the Israeli Foreign Minister spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon saying: “The international outcry [over settlements] was done with the full knowledge that Gilo in Jerusalem will be part of Israel in any conceivable agreement.”

“The argument that building in Gilo undermines the two-state solution is factually baseless and distracts from the real obstacle to peace which is the persistent Palestinian refusal to recognise Israel as a Jewish state, under any borders.”

The American and European criticism came in the wake of Israeli approval of 323 tenders for settlement units in occupied East Jerusalem and plans to build 770 units in Gilo.