JERUSALEM: Israel has “no intention” of reviving West Bank settlements evacuated nearly two decades ago, the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday, after a parliamentary vote sparked US ire.
Lawmakers voted Tuesday to annul part of a law banning Israelis from living in areas of the occupied West Bank the government evacuated in 2005.
That year Israel unilaterally withdrew from the Gaza Strip and removed Jewish settlers from the coastal territory, as well as from four settlements in the northern West Bank.
Netanyahu’s office said the parliamentary vote scraps “a discriminatory and humiliating law, that prohibited Jews from living in areas in northern Samaria, which is part of our historic homeland,” using the biblical name for the northern West Bank.
“Having said that, the government has no intention of establishing new communities in these areas,” the statement added.
Netanyahu returned to power in December and vowed to expand settlements across the West Bank, which are deemed illegal under international law.
His assertion that the government will not formally allow settlers to return to the four sites evacuated in 2005 comes after Washington said it was “extremely troubled” by the parliamentary vote.
“The legislative changes announced today are particularly provocative,” State Department spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters Tuesday.
Patel said the move was in “clear contradiction” of promises made by prime minister Ariel Sharon to US president George W. Bush, as well as assurances given just two days ago by the Netanyahu administration.
The decision by lawmakers was heralded by Israel’s settler movement which has made one of the sites — Homesh — a symbol of their cause.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, himself a far-right settler, tweeted that it marked a step toward regularizing the Israeli presence at Homesh.
A small group of activists returned to the site in 2009 and set up a Jewish seminary, which was cleared repeatedly by Israeli troops before the military eventually allowed them to stay.
Benjamin Netanyahu: Israel will not revive settlements evacuated in 2005
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Benjamin Netanyahu: Israel will not revive settlements evacuated in 2005
- Lawmakers earlier voted to annul part of a law banning Israelis from living in areas of the occupied West Bank the government evacuated in 2005
UN chief appoints Finland’s Haavisto as personal envoy for Sudan
- Former Finnish FM has extensive experience in mediation in the Horn of Africa and Middle East
- Haavisto was Finland’s minister of foreign affairs from 2019-23
NEW YORK: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has appointed Pekka Haavisto, the former Finnish foreign minister, as his personal envoy for Sudan, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said on Tuesday.
Haavisto succeeds Ramtane Lamamra of Algeria and brings more than 40 years of experience in politics and international affairs to the role, having previously held ministerial positions in Finland’s government as well as senior positions with the EU and UN. He is currently a member of the Finnish parliament.
Haavisto was Finland’s minister of foreign affairs from 2019-23. From 2016-19, he was president of the European Institute of Peace. He has also held the ministerial portfolios of development cooperation, state ownership, and the environment. Haavisto was elected to the Finnish parliament in 1987.
The new personal envoy has broad experience in mediation and negotiation processes in the Horn of Africa and the Middle East, and has worked extensively with the UN, said Dujarric.
From 2009-17, he was special representative to the Finnish foreign minister for mediation and crisis management in Africa. Between 2005 and 2007, Haavisto was the EU special representative for Sudan, where he took part in the Darfur peace negotiations. During that period, he also acted as a UN senior adviser to the Darfur peace process.
Haavisto worked for the UN Environment Programme from 1999 to 2005, including assignments in Iraq, the Palestinian territories, Liberia, and Sudan.
Asked why Lamamra had stepped down, Dujarric said that it was a “joint decision” between the Algerian envoy and the secretary-general.
