RAMALLAH, Monday, December 21, 2020 (WAFA) - Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh condemned the Israeli Knesset's approval, in the preliminary reading, of a draft bill to legalize and recognize illegal settlement outposts in the occupied West Bank, as a war crime to be added to the international criminal file.

During the cabinet meeting, Shtayyeh called on the international community to do everything possible to confront, condemn, stop, and boycott the entire settlement enterprise, stressing that settlements in all their forms are illegal and unlawful.

The Prime Minister called on the UN Security Council convening in New York in the nineteenth session of the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court to consider settlement activity,  and to implement Resolution No. 2334 and issues emanating from it, particularly those related to settlements.

He added that President Mahmoud Abbas’s call to hold an international peace conference is a real and serious opening for achieving peace based on international law and legitimacy.

Shtayyeh congratulated Christians on the occasion of Christmas, calling on the heads of the churches in Palestine to observe safety and to limit the Mass on Christmas Eve to a small number of people, committed to social distancing rules.

T.R.