OIC denounces Israel’s plan to build new settlement outposts in West Bank

The powerful grouping of 57 Islamic nations has condemned Israel’s plan to build new settlement outposts in the West Bank despite the international outcry against the Tel Aviv regime’s land grab policies in the occupied Palestinian territories.

In a statement on Saturday, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) (formerly Organization of the Islamic Conference) vehemently denounced the Israeli regime’s decision to legitimize five new outposts, and subsequent construction of thousands of new illegal housing units in the area.

The intergovernmental Islamic organization also criticized the imposition of taxes on churches as well as their affiliated institutions and properties in the Israeli-occupied Old City of al-Quds. It slammed the Tel Aviv regime’s deduction of the Palestinian tax revenues. 

Such measures are in line with the Zionist entity's policy of ethnic cleansing, forced displacement and genocide against Palestinian people, the OIC said.

The organization stressed that all actions and decisions taken by Israel as the occupying power to perpetuate its colonial regime in the occupied Palestinian territory are null and void under international law and the relevant UN Security Council resolutions, especially UN Security Council Resolution 2334 (2016).

The OIC finally warned about the danger of escalating settler terrorism in the West Bank, calling on the international community to assume its responsibilities in forcing Israel to stop the genocide in the Gaza Strip and the illegal measures it is enforcing throughout the occupied Palestinian territories.

Israel authorizes 5 settlement outposts in occupied West Bank

The Israeli cabinet has approved the authorization of five settlement outposts in the occupied West Bank.

Hamas slams Israel’s settlement expansion plans

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Hamas resistance movement has denounced the Israeli security cabinet’s decision to construct five new settlement outposts in the West Bank.

It stated that the measure represents a practical declaration from the occupying regime to control the region.

Hamas said in a statement that such fascist measures require a unified stance on the part of all Palestinians to reject and confront the extremist Israeli administration’s plans and policies.

The resistance group then called on the United Nations and the international community to take effective actions to stop these measures, which will eventually fail in the face of the steadfastness and resilience of Palestinians in the West Bank.

On Thursday evening, Israel’s extremist finance minister Bezalel Smotrich announced that the Security Cabinet authorized one outpost for every country that unilaterally recognized Palestine as a state in the last month.

Last month, Spain, Ireland and Norway formally recognized the Palestinian state, joining over 140 UN member states that have recognized its statehood over the past four decades.

Slovenia and Malta have also indicated they plan to formally recognize the state of Palestine.

The five settlement outposts are Evyatar, Givat Assaf, Sde Efraim, Heletz, and Adorayim.

Tel Aviv has stepped up settlement expansion since December 2022, when Benjamin Netanyahu staged a comeback as prime minister at the head of a cabinet of hard-right and ultra-Orthodox parties.

More than 600,000 Israelis live in over 230 settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the West Bank and East al-Quds.

The international community views the settlements – hundreds of which have been built across the West Bank since Tel Aviv’s occupation of the territory in 1967 – as illegal under international law and the Geneva Conventions due to their construction on the occupied territories.

Palestinians want the West Bank as part of a future independent state with East al-Quds as its capital.

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