The foreign ministers of Turkey, Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates condemn Israel’s settlement policies in the West Bank and say they categorically reject a planned settlement expansion in the controversial E1 area.
“The Ministers call for immediate action to halt the ‘E1’ settlement plan, rescind all measures taken in connection with it, and cease all settlement activities and other measures aimed at altering the geographic and demographic character of the Occupied Palestinian Territory,” they say in a joint statement, adding that the plan constitutes a “dangerous escalation” that further advances settlement expansion and annexation of Palestinian lands.
The E1 expansion would connect the Jerusalem and Ma’ale Adumim areas, effectively scuttling the prospect of contiguous Palestinian sovereignty between the population centers of Bethlehem, East Jerusalem and Ramallah.
Israeli settlement activists seek to develop the area in order to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state.
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