PARIS, Monday, May 22, 2023 (WAFA) – France today condemned the Israeli occupation authorities’ decision to allow Jewish supremacist settlers to return to an evacuated colonial settlement in the northern West Bank.
The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned in a press statement that occupation authorities’ “decision to authorize the establishment of Israeli settlers in Homesh, in the north of the occupied West Bank.”
“This decision is contrary to international law and also contravenes the commitments Israel made at the Aqaba and Sharm el-Sheikh meetings. France calls on the Israeli Government to reverse this decision,” the Ministry added.
The Ministry expressed its concern “following the second provocative visit by the Israeli National Security Minister ]Itamar Ben-Gvir[ to Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque compound on Sunday.
“France reiterates the need to maintain the historical status quo over holy sites in Jerusalem and emphasizes the importance of Jordan’s specific role in this regard,” it added.
It called on “all those involved to refrain from any unilateral measures or provocations that are liable to fuel tensions and violence, particularly against civilians,” while reiterating that “there is an urgent need to restore a credible political outlook for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on the basis of a two-State solution, the only solution which can bring about a just and lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians.”
On Sunday, the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, passed the second and third readings of a bill to allow Israeli settlers to “resettle” in four colonial settlements in the occupied West Bank, rolling back legislation that ordered the evacuation of the colonial outposts of Homesh, Ganim, Kadim and Sa-Nur in the occupied territories in 2005.
The evacuation of the outposts was part of the then Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s unilateral disengagement plan, which saw Israel remove more than 9,000 settlers in 21 illegal colonial settlements in the Gaza Strip and the northern West Bank.
There are over 700,000 settlers living in colonial settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem in violation of international law.
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