Mustafa Barghouti: New settlements what "Deal of the Century" looks like

The Secretary-General of the Palestinian National Initiative, Mustafa Barghouti, has said that the Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman support for of thousands of new settlement units in the occupied West Bank is an “actual implementation” of the “Deal of the Century” (The Trump administration’s plan to settle the Palestinian-Israeli conflict).

“This is part of the actual implementation of the so-called Deal of the Century and a blatant violation of all international laws and charters and the criminal court,” Barghouti asserted in a statement on Thursday.

He considered that “without the cover of Trump’s administration, Israel would not have dared to do such action, which confirms its rejection of any solution and its attempt to impose a fait accompli on the ground that prevents the establishment of a Palestinian State and perpetuates the racial segregation regime.”

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He stressed that “Israel will not be deterred except by changing the balance of powers, through uniting the Palestinian ranks and escalating the boycott and popular resistance against the occupation and the discrimination and racial segregation regime, which is forced upon the Palestinian people.

“We will be planning to establish 2,500 settlement units during the meeting of the Supreme Planning Council in the West Bank, in addition to other 1,400 units that will be immediately established,” Lieberman claimed via his Twitter account on Thursday.

He continued: “We will push forward the construction projects in Judea and Samaria (West Bank) from the north to the south, including large and small settlements. We will continue to settle and develop Judea and Samaria (West Bank) by our actions.”

בשבוע הבא, נביא לאישור מועצת התכנון העליונה ביהודה ושומרון 2500 יחידות דיור חדשות, מתוכן 1,400 לבנייה מיידית. אנו נקדם בניה בכל רחבי יהודה ושומרון, מצפון עד דרום, בישובים קטנים וגדולים. נמשיך ליישב ולפתח את יהודה ושומרון, במעשים.

— אביגדור ליברמן (@AvigdorLiberman) May 24, 2018

On 23 December, 2016, the UN Security Council had overwhelmingly endorsed the resolution which considered the Israeli settlement in the 1967 occupied territories, including East Jerusalem, as an “illegitimate settlement” and called to completely and immediately halt it.