PA boycotts meeting with Israel over settlement expansion plan

The Palestinian Authority has decided to boycott a bilateral meeting with Israel in protest at the Israeli cabinet’s decision to expand settlements in the occupied West Bank, a Palestinian official announced on Sunday. All of Israel’s settlements and the settlers who live in them are illegal under international law.

According to Palestinian Minister for Civil Affairs Hussein Al-Sheikh, the PA will boycott today’s meeting of the Joint Israeli-Palestinian Economic Committee because of the cabinet decision. The Israeli cabinet approved a resolution yesterday that will allow it to significantly speed up the process of approving new buildings in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

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According to the resolution, the authority to approve building plans will be transferred from Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant to extreme far right, pro-settler Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, said Axios. The resolution limits the amount of control the prime minister and the defence minister have over approving building plans in the settlements, effectively curbing the ability of the US and other countries to press the Israeli government to suspend such plans.

“The Palestinian leadership will study a number of other measures and decisions for implementation related to the relationship with Israel,” added Al-Sheikh.

The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates said that Israel’s step accelerates the expansion of Israeli law over the West Bank and its subsequent annexation. “It also facilitates the passage of settlement projects quietly and in short stages that may not be raised in the media.”

The ministry called for real international and US action and pressure on the Israeli government to discourage it from this move and to take the necessary practical steps to force it to stop its unilateral illegal measures that undermine the opportunity to implement the two-state solution.

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