Israel’s far-right Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said on Tuesday he wanted to see more Jewish settlements after European and U.S. foreign ministers said they were troubled by a recent decision by Israel to legalize Israeli settler outposts.
“This is our mission. This is our doctrine. Nine settlements are nice but it’s still not enough. We want much more,” Ben-Gvir said in a video message that followed a statement of concern from Washington and its European allies, France, Germany, Italy, and Britain over the decision on legalizing outposts.
Earlier the foreign ministries of France, Germany, Britain, and Italy joined the United States in warning against settlement expansion on land the Palestinians see as the core of a future Palestinian state.
“We strongly oppose unilateral actions which will only serve to exacerbate tensions between Israelis and Palestinians and undermine efforts to achieve a negotiated two-state solution,” they said in a statement.
The Israeli cabinet on Sunday approved the legalization of nine outposts deep in the occupied West Bank in sheer defiance of the outcry from the international community and Palestinians who want an end to the regime’s settlement projects.
In a statement, Israeli occupation Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the decision listing the illegal outposts as Avigayil, Beit Hogla, Givat Harel, Givat Arnon, Mitzpe Yehuda, Malachei Hashalom, Asahel, Sde Boaz, and Shacharit.
To legalize the outposts, the far-right Israeli government will have to prove that they were established on what Israel claims to be state land. This will likely be difficult given that many of them, including almost all of Sde Boaz and Givat Harel, were built on private Palestinian land.
It’s worth noting that more than 650,000 colonial settlers were distributed among 164 illegal settlements and 124 outposts built on the stolen lands of occuiped West Bank and Jerusalem.
The West Bank and Jerusalem lands are occupied territories based on International law due to this all Israeli settlement-building activities there are illegal.
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