CAIRO: Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit strongly condemned Israeli cabinet decisions to revoke the Palestinian Authority’s powers in Area B, restrict authority officials’ movement, and initiate settlement construction in the West Bank.
He said these decisions represent a complete and final overturn of the Oslo Accords, returning the situation to a pre-agreement state and reinforcing a blatant occupation.
Gamal Roshdy, spokesman for the secretary-general, said that Aboul Gheit called on the international community to recognize the Israeli government as a right-wing, racist administration uninterested in peace.
He emphasized the Israeli government’s goal to dismantle the Palestinian Authority, solidify the occupation in the West Bank, and eliminate Palestinian control, including in Area B under the Oslo Accords.
Roshdy said that the recent decisions reflected the Israeli government’s complete submission to the extreme right, represented by the minister of finance.
These decisions aim to embarrass and insult the international community, which has shown a trend toward expanding recognition of the Palestinian state by undermining all components of the two-state solution.
He said that such actions further inflame the situation in the West Bank, turn back the situation to before the Oslo Accords, and seek to subjugate the Palestinians under a direct occupation regime that can only be described as apartheid.
Egypt also criticized the Israeli government’s decision to legalize five settlements in the West Bank.
In a statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Egypt condemned the Israeli government’s decision to approve the legalization of five settlements in the West Bank and to plan the construction of thousands of new settlement units as a continuation and apparent insistence on a policy of violating international law and UN Security Council resolutions, foremost among them Resolution 2334.
Egypt strongly denounced Israel’s exploitation of the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip to further illegal settlement expansion and attempt to alter the legal status of the occupied Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem.
Egypt said that Israel’s continued illegal actions aim to undermine the chances of a two-state solution, which is based on respecting the inalienable legitimate rights of the Palestinian people and is the only path to comprehensive and lasting peace.
It called on the international community to intervene to stop Israel’s illegal actions and practices and the continuous violations of Palestinian rights.
Egypt also called for more intense efforts to immediately end the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip.
