The European Union on Tuesday said it condemns a new Israeli law legalizing dozens of Zionist settler outposts in the occupied West Bank and urged the country not to implement it.
“The European Union condemns the recent adoption of the ‘Regularization Law'”, foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said, arguing it “crosses a new and dangerous threshold by legalizing under Israeli law the seizure of Palestinian property rights”.
The 28-nation EU “urges the Israeli leadership to refrain from implementing the law and to avoid measures that further raise tensions and endanger the prospects for a peaceful solution to the conflict”, she said in a statement.
The Israeli law passed Monday allows for the appropriation of private Palestinian land for Zionist settler outposts, meaning legalization for dozens of wildcat outposts and thousands of settler homes.
Settlements in both the West Bank and east al-Quds (Jerusalem) are viewed as illegal under international law and major stumbling blocks to so-called peace as they are built on Palestinian land.
International criticism to the new law has mounted swiftly, with UN chief Antonio Guterres saying it is “contravention of international law”, but the United States has been notably silent.
Source: AFP
