The Foreign Office and a group of Western countries are announcing a sanctions package against Israel for this week. The aim is to deter companies from participating in a planned settlement project in the West Bank that would split the area in two and make a two-state solution nearly impossible. Nine countries, including France, the United Kingdom, and Australia, have warned that settlement violence must stop and that no company should be involved in the so-called E1 development.
Just this month, tenders were published for the construction of more than 3,000 housing units between Jerusalem and the settlement of Ma’ale Adumim. The development would cut the West Bank from north to south, effectively making a contiguous Palestinian state impossible. 137 Labour Party MPs – including former minister Wes Streeting – have signed a letter to Yvette Cooper demanding “urgent, concrete action” to stop the escalation of attacks against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem, particularly by ending trade with illegal Israeli settlements.
Melanie Ward, who organized the letter and before becoming an MP was the executive director of Medical Aid for Palestinians, said: “A ban on settlement trade would send the clearest message to Israel that settlements have no viable economic future and are rejected by the world. That is needed now more than ever.”
Last week, the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People condemned an order by Israel’s Bezalel Smotrich to evict Palestinians from Khan al-Ahmar in the occupied West Bank. The committee said this increased the risk of forced displacement of the civilian population and called the step illegal and a war crime. The MPs’ letter described Khan al-Ahmar as “in a harrowing struggle against erasure, displacement, and state-backed settler violence as part of the Israeli E1 plan,” which aims to cut through the West Bank and make a two-state solution impossible.
Source: www.theguardian.com
