Jordan says Israel’s new settlement undermines peace

Jordan on Saturday condemned Israel’s announcement that it would build the first officially sanctioned new settlement in the West Bank in more than 20 years, with Amman saying the plan would undermine efforts to achieve peace.

Jordanian government spokesman Mohammed Momani said the establishment of a new West Bank settlement would hurt the peace process and “constitutes a clear violation of the rights of the Palestinian people, in particular their right to establish an independent state within the 1967 borders,” according to the Ynet news site.

Israel’s announcement, he said, “harms efforts to restart the peace process and bring an end to the conflict.” He said the move would also strengthen terrorists and extremist ideologies.

Momani called on other countries “to condemn Israel’s policy of settlement expansion and to stop its provocations.”

The new settlement was approved by the security cabinet late on Thursday for the evacuees of the illegal Amona outpost, which was razed last month after the High Court of Justice ruled that it was built on private Palestinian land. The new settlement will be built next to Shilo.

The cabinet on Thursday also announced the approval of tenders for some 2,000 new settlement homes in the West Bank — housing units whose planned construction, among some 5,500, was first announced in January.

Egypt and the Arab League have also condemned the Israeli announcement. Arab League Secretary General Ahmed Aboul-Gheit said Friday that the move “clearly showed that Israel isn’t a true partner for achieving peace, and is captive in the hands of radical settlers.”

The UK, France and Germany, as well as the UN, have also blasted the plans.

Britain’s Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said they were “contrary to international law and seriously undermine the prospects of two states for two peoples.”

The French Foreign Ministry said Israel’s announcements were “extremely worrying” and that Paris “firmly condemns these decisions that threaten peace and risk exacerbating tensions on the ground.”

A German government spokesperson cited by Haaretz said that “the federal government expects the Israeli government to clarify which solution they are pursuing for a lasting peace with the Palestinians. Germany will not recognize any change in the 1967 lines, which has not been agreed between the parties.”

The Palestinians reacted furiously to the announcement.

PLO Secretary General Saeb Erekat said in a statement on Friday that the Palestinians will “hold Benjamin Netanyahu and his extremist government fully responsible for the consequences of such violations.”

“We send a clear message to the US administration, the United Nations and to the European Union: Peace is not going to be achieved by tolerating such crimes,” he added.

Senior Palestinian official Hanan Ashrawi said the move showed the government was pushing ahead with “their systematic policies of settler colonialism, apartheid and ethnic cleansing, showing a total and blatant disregard for Palestinian human rights.”

The White House, meanwhile, warned Israel against “unrestrained” settlement activity, cautioning that “while the existence of settlements is not in itself an impediment to peace, further unrestrained settlement activity does not help advance peace,” according to an official.

But the Trump administration did say it welcomed Netanyahu’s announcement Thursday, after the approval of the new settlement, that Israel will curb construction in West Bank settlements as a goodwill gesture to US President Donald Trump.

The Prime Minister’s Office said Thursday that any future construction would be limited to existing settlement boundaries or adjacent to them. However, if legal, security or topographical limitations do not allow adherence to those guidelines, new homes will be built outside the current settlement boundaries but as close as possible to them.

Israel will also prevent the construction of any new illegal outposts, Netanyahu told his ministers.