Ankara (UNA/Anadolu) – The Turkish Foreign Ministry strongly condemned the recent decision by the Israeli government regarding land registration, which aims to impose its sovereignty in the occupied West Bank and expand its settlement activities.
Earlier on Sunday, the Israeli government approved a decision allowing it to seize Palestinian land in the West Bank by registering it as “state property,” for the first time since 1967.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement: “We condemn in the strongest terms the recent decision of the Israeli government, which aims to impose its sovereignty in the occupied West Bank and expand its settlement activities.”
She noted that this step aims to forcibly displace the Palestinian people from their lands and accelerate illegal annexation steps by Israel, and is null and void and a flagrant violation of international law.
She stressed that Israel has no sovereignty over the occupied Palestinian territories, and that the expansionist policies intensified by the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the occupied West Bank undermine efforts to bring peace to the region and damage the prospect of a two-state solution.
She called on the international community to take a firm stance against Israel's attempts to impose a fait accompli.
She affirmed that Türkiye will continue to support efforts aimed at establishing an independent, sovereign, and geographically unified Palestinian state within the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
The Israeli Broadcasting Authority reported that the government approved a proposal to begin the process of registering lands in the West Bank as “state property,” and explained that the proposal was submitted by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, Justice Minister Yariv Levin, and Defense Minister Yisrael Katz.
In its first comment on the matter, the Palestinian Presidency, in a statement, described the Israeli decision as “a threat to security and stability, a dangerous escalation, and a flagrant violation of international law and resolutions of international legitimacy,” according to the official Palestinian news agency WAFA.
She said that “the rejected and condemned Israeli decision is considered a de facto annexation of the occupied Palestinian territory, and a declaration of the start of the implementation of plans to annex Palestinian land with the aim of entrenching the occupation through illegal settlement, and constitutes an end to the signed agreements.”
She added that the decision “clearly contradicts UN Security Council resolutions, especially Resolution 2334, which considers all settlement activity in the entire occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, to be illegal.”
The UN Security Council adopted Resolution 2334 on December 23, 2016, which called on Israel to cease settlement activity in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and declared that Israel’s establishment of settlements in the occupied territory since 1967 is illegal.
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