The decision by Israeli authorities to approve the building of new and illegal settlement colonies in the West Bank shows a complete disregard and contempt for peace, Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s Foreign Affairs Spokesperson, Se\u00e1n Crowe TD, said today.<\/p>\n
On Sunday Israeli authorities in Jerusalem approved the building of 1,200 new illegal settlement units in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, and today Israeli officials approved the building of a further 940 units in East Jerusalem.<\/p>\n
Deputy Se\u00e1n Crowe said:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe recent peace talks between the Israeli and Palestinian authorities marked the first official talks since 2010.<\/p>\n
\u201cCrucially the last talks broke down due to Israel\u2019s continued settlement building in occupied Palestinian territory. The building on occupied land is not only illegal under international law but it also infringes on the human rights of Palestinian civilians.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe recent talks, which are supposed to resume this week, are based on a very fragile footing. Israel\u2019s decision to approve these new colonial settlement units shows a complete disregard and contempt for efforts to create any meaningful peace process in the region and a lasting two-state solution to the conflict.<\/p>\n
\u201cIsrael\u2019s decision seems to be an attempt to sabotage and derail the talks process by forcing the withdrawal of the Palestinian negotiators before anything of substance is addressed.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy prioritising the building of illegal settlements over the prospect of peace talks and hopefully a peace process, the Israeli government is making it clear that it will not accept the creation of a viable Palestinian state.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is in direct conflict with the wishes of the vast majority of the international community, as reflected in the progressive decision to upgrade Palestine\u2019s UN status recently.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Israeli government\u2019s position lacks any real credibility and they need to show to the world that they are serious about reaching a meaningful peace agreement with Palestinians.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cThese new settlement approvals are further evidence that the Israeli government wants to humiliate the Palestinians and destroy the potential for any lasting peace agreement.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn response the EU foreign service has stated that it \u2018hopes\u2019 Israel\u2019s approval for this illegal units will not stop collapse the peace talks. They also called \u2018on both sides to make every effort to make them a success\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis weak and pathetic response highlights once again that the EU is content to rely on empty rhetoric and unwilling to act in the interest of decency, human rights and international law in the region.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is fundamentally clear that the Israeli government is breaking and flouting international law by continuing to build settlements.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe timing of the approval of these units shows a complete distain for peace talks and international opinion, yet Israel continues to receive favourable treatment from the EU.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s long past the time that the EU places real and substantial pressure on Israel to abide by international law and to make clear that it will not stand idly by while Israel abuses human rights and attempts to undermine potentials for peace.\u201d<\/p>\n
ENDS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The decision by Israeli authorities to approve the building of new and illegal settlement colonies in the West Bank shows a complete disregard and contempt for peace, Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s Foreign Affairs Spokesperson, Se\u00e1n Crowe TD, said today. On Sunday Israeli authorities in Jerusalem approved the building of 1,200 new illegal settlement units in the occupied […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,49,47,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-israel","category-israeli-settlements","category-palestine","category-reconciliation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=874"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":876,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874\/revisions\/876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}