ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and seven Arab and Muslim states on Monday jointly condemned recent Israeli decisions imposing new legal and administrative measures in the occupied West Bank, warning the steps amount to an attempt to enforce unlawful sovereignty and accelerate annexation of Palestinian territory.
The condemnation was issued in a joint statement by the foreign ministries of Pakistan, Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Türkiye, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
The West Bank is among the territories sought by Palestinians for a future independent state. Large areas remain under Israeli military control, with limited Palestinian self-rule exercised by the Western-backed Palestinian Authority.
On Sunday, Israel’s security cabinet approved a series of measures aimed at easing land purchases by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank and expanding enforcement powers of Israeli authorities over Palestinians. The steps were reported to include the removal of long-standing restrictions on land purchases by Jewish private citizens, expanded Israeli administration of religious sites, and increased oversight in areas under Palestinian Authority control, including environmental, water and archaeological matters.
The joint statement said Israel holds no sovereignty over the occupied Palestinian territory and accused it of seeking to entrench settlement activity and impose a new legal and administrative reality on the ground.
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“The foreign ministers condemned in the strongest terms the illegal Israeli decisions and measures aimed at imposing unlawful Israeli sovereignty, entrenching settlement activity, and enforcing a new legal and administrative reality in the occupied West Bank,” the statement said. It added that the actions were accelerating “illegal annexation and the displacement of the Palestinian people.”
The ministers warned that continued Israeli expansionist policies and what they described as illegal measures were fueling violence and instability across the region.
