PA slams Netanyahu for amendment to settler law

The Palestinian Authority has condemned the statements made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu regarding the repercussions of the amendments introduced to a 2005 law that ordered the evacuation of settlers from four illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, the PA foreign ministry stressed that Netanyahu’s remarks are further evidence of his colonial, racist and expansionist mentality. They were, it added, aligned with the recent comments by his Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, in which he denied the existence of the Palestinian people.

“Netanyahu’s position is official recognition of the annexation of the occupied West Bank, and the practice of the worst forms of apartheid and persecution against the Palestinian people,” said the ministry. “He underestimates the overwhelming American and international reactions to the [Knesset] approval of the amendments to the Disengagement Law.”

The Israeli parliament paved the way on Tuesday for Jewish settlers to return to four settlements in the occupied West Bank by amending the law that ordered their evacuation. The move has been condemned by the European Union.

All of Israel’s settlements and Jewish settlers are illegal under international law.

READ: More than 200,000 people demand end of Israeli apartheid