Two political analysts – speaking to the “What Al -Khobar” program – warned of the danger of the Israeli decision to build and legitimize 22 new settlements in the West Bank, and considered this step an attempt to devote the fait accompli to include the entire West Bank and the displacement of the Palestinians from their land, and they stressed the need for Arabs and the international community to move seriously and practically to deter the occupation.
Earlier, Israeli Defense Minister Yisrael Katz described the decision to establish and legitimize the construction of 22 new settlements in the West Bank, as a “historic step for the settlement march.” He said – during a visit to one of the resolution settlements – that strengthening settlement is a clear message to French President Emmanuel Macron and his allies who intend to recognize a Palestinian state.
For his part, the Secretary -General of the Palestinian National Initiative, Dr. Mustafa Al -Barghouthi, believes that the Israeli occupation paves the way – as it acknowledges – to include and Judaize the entire West Bank, indicating that today there is between 300 and 400 settlement colonies, and the addition of 22 other settlements, which means causing a qualitative and radical change to perpetuate Israeli control.
Dr. Al -Barghouti considered that the establishment and legitimacy of the construction of 22 new settlements in the West Bank aims to change the reality so that the West Bank becomes an Israeli land, while the Palestinian cities and villages become merely sliced entities.
For his part, the director of the Jerusalem Center for Political Studies, Uribe Al -Rantawi, said that the Israeli government is seeking to undermine any opportunity for a Palestinian state in the West Bank and the sector or the recognition of the world, noting that Israel is working in an organized manner to undermine the pillars of this three state: land, residents and political system, as it swallows the Palestinian land, displacing its residents, and undermining its authority, i.e. the Palestinian National Authority.
He described the decision to build 22 new settlements as unprecedented since the occupation of the West Bank, and a dangerous and serious development, and stated that this decision was preceded by a few weeks ago a more dangerous decision, as all cases of registration of lands, real estate and property in the region C to the civil department of the Israeli Ministry of Defense, which the Minister of Finance takes into account in Salail Smotrich.
According to Al -Rantawi, the dispute inside Israel is now taking place between two teams, the first wants to include the whole West Bank, and the second wants to start the “C” region, which constitutes 62% of the West Bank, indicating that the settlement is spreading today in the entire West Bank, as the occupation seeks to separate it from Jordan and its Arab depth and convert its cities and population gatherings into isolated internal pockets.
Regarding the danger of the settlement plan for the establishment of the Palestinian state, Al -Rantawi explained – in his talk to the program “Beyond the News” – that the Israeli occupation aims to prevent the establishment of a entire Palestinian state, which is an internal supported strategy, as evidence that the last poll shows that 82% of the respondents with the displacement of the residents of the Gaza Strip, and 56% of them with the displacement of Palestinians 48.
Despite this Israeli reality, Al -Rantawi says that some Arabs do not want to believe and are still chasing the mirage and talking about the two -state solution, which he said was undermined long years ago.
For his part, Al -Barghouti stressed that the occupation has no willingness, neither for acceptance of a Palestinian state nor the idea of one state, nor the idea of a two -state solution, because he wants to take all of Palestine and abandon the Palestinian population, whose number exceeds the number of Israelis.
The required steps
Regarding the required steps, Palestinian, Arab and international, to abort Israel’s continuous attempts to bite the West Bank and undermine the dream of the Palestinian state, Al -Rantawi said that the Arab position should focus on demanding a Palestinian state on the Strip and the West Bank with East Jerusalem and fixing the Palestinians in their land, calling on the Arab countries that have relations with the occupation to cut it, freeze it or suspend them to send a strong message to it.
He warned of the possibility of the Israeli occupation’s possibility in implementing its settlement plan if the situation continues as it is, in light of the weakness of the performance of the Palestinian Authority, a pioneering Arab position and a complicated international community, as Western awakening did not reach real pressure on the occupation.
Al -Barghouti also called for sanctions on Israel, as did the international community previously with South Africa, and that Arab countries cancel all normalization agreements with the occupying power.