EU denounces Israel for legalizing 5 West Bank settler outposts

The European Union’s foreign affairs branch releases a statement denouncing Israel’s legalization of five settler outposts in the West Bank, slamming the move as “another deliberate attempt at undermining peace efforts.”

The EU also condemns Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich for withholding tax revenues from the Palestinian Authority, which he agreed to release in exchange for the approval of the outpost legalization.

“The EU stresses that actions weakening the Palestinian Authority must stop and calls on Israel to release withheld clearance revenues and to take the necessary measures to ensure that correspondent banking services between Israeli and Palestinian banks remain in place,” the EU statement says. “The EU reiterates its unwavering commitment to lasting and sustainable peace in accordance with the relevant resolutions of the UN Security Council, on the basis of the two-State solution, with the State of Israel and an independent, democratic, contiguous, sovereign and viable State of Palestine living side-by-side in peace, security and mutual recognition.”