The foreign ministers of Egypt, Jordan, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey, Indonesia, and Pakistan condemned “in the strongest terms” recent illegal Israeli decisions and measures aimed at imposing unlawful sovereignty, entrenching settlement activity, and enforcing a new legal and administrative reality in the occupied West Bank.
In a joint statement on Monday, they said the measures accelerate attempts to annex the West Bank and displace Palestinians, stressing that Israel has no sovereignty over the occupied Palestinian territory.
On Sunday, Israel’s security and political cabinet approved a series of decisions advanced by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Security Minister Israel Katz, including sweeping changes in the management and registration of land in the West Bank. The measures would allow the demolition of Palestinian-owned buildings in “Area A,” which falls under the Palestinian Authority’s full civil and security control under the Oslo II Accord signed in 1995.
Under one land-related decision, it will be permitted to lift the existing secrecy on West Bank land records, revealing owners’ lists to Israelis, enabling potential buyers to identify landowners and approach them directly to purchase land.
Another decision calls for legislation to repeal a ban on selling West Bank land to non-Arabs, cancel the requirement to approve real estate transactions, and allow settlers to buy land in a personal capacity, not only through companies. This removes the current restrictions on Jews in general and settlers in particular, enabling them to buy land freely and without bureaucratic procedures.
The Arab and Islamic states said they “absolutely reject” these measures, warning that Israel’s expansionist policies and illegal steps in the occupied West Bank fuel violence and conflict in the region.
They said the measures violate international law, undermine the two-state solution, and assault the Palestinian people’s inalienable right to establish an independent, sovereign state on the June 4, 1967 lines, with occupied Jerusalem as its capital.
The statement said the measures are null and void and violate UN Security Council resolutions, especially Resolution 2334, which condemns Israeli measures aimed at changing the demographic composition, character, and status of the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem.
The ministers urged the international community to fulfill its legal and moral responsibilities and compel Israel to halt its dangerous escalation in the occupied West Bank, and the inciting statements of its officials. They stressed the need to meet the Palestinian people’s legitimate rights to self-determination and statehood, based on the two-state solution and in line with resolutions of international legitimacy .
Israel’s cabinet approved a plan on Dec. 11 to establish 19 new settlements, a step rights groups described as entrenching a policy of imposing facts on the ground, and an unprecedented expansion of settlement construction.
Israel’s settlement activity and arrest campaigns in the West Bank have continued despite assurances by Jennifer Locetta, the US deputy representative to the UN, that President Donald Trump “will not allow Israel to annex any part of the West Bank,” and despite a promise Trump made to Arab and Muslim leaders in late September.
During a December UN Security Council briefing on developments in the West Bank, the deputy UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, Ramiz Alakbarov, condemned “relentless” Israeli settlement expansion, saying it had reached its highest levels since the UN began monitoring it in 2017.
Also in December, Israel’s Defense Ministry announced the start of work on building a wall along the border with Jordan stretching about 500 kilometers from the southern Golan Heights to north of Eilat, meaning pressing ahead with a plan to encircle and annex the occupied West Bank.
UNRWA said in late November Israeli that forces had fully emptied Jenin, Tulkarm, and Nur Shams camps during more than 10 months of the “Iron Wall” operation, leading to the forced displacement of about 32,000 Palestinians.
On Jan. 21, 2025 the occupying forces launched the operation in Jenin refugee camp, home to more than 20,000 people, and followed with another operation under the same name in the Tulkarm camp, home to 15,000 people, on Jan. 27.
In July, the Israeli Knesset voted by 71 votes to 13 in favor of a draft law calling on the government to “impose Israeli sovereignty” over the West Bank.
