The United Nations Special Coordinator to the Middle East, Nickolay Mladenov, told the Security Council on Wednesday, December 18, that Israel advanced or approved plans for over 22,000 housing units in West Bank settlements and East Jerusalem in the three years since the council adopted a resolution condemning settlements in lands the Palestinians want for their future state.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres addresses a special session of the Italian parliament on Wednesday, December 18. (Photo: United Nations)
Mladenov, who was reporting to the council on the implementation of UNSC Resolution 2334 adopted in December 2016, told the council members that Israel has also issued tenders for some 8,000 housing units since the adoption of the resolution which declares, among other things, that the settlements have no legal validity. He said the numbers “should be of serious concern to all those who continue to support the establishment of an independent and viable Palestinian state alongside Israel.”
UN Secretary-General António Guterres wrote in a report circulated among the Security Council member states on Wednesday that the settlements have “no legal effect.” He declared that construction and approvals “must cease immediately and completely.” “The existence and expansion of settlements fuel resentment and hopelessness among the Palestinian population and significantly heighten Israeli-Palestinian tensions,” the UN chief said. “In addition, they continue to undermine the prospects for ending the Israeli occupation and achieving the two-state solution by systematically eroding the possibility of establishing a contiguous and viable Palestinian state.” Guterres said he regrets the Trump administration’s announcement on November 18 that it no longer views “the establishment of Israeli civilian settlements in the West Bank as per se, inconsistent with international law.”
The international community overwhelmingly considers the settlements illegal based, in part, on the Fourth Geneva Convention, which bars an occupying power from transferring parts of its own civilian population to occupied territory.
