ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and seven Arab and Muslim states on Monday jointly condemned recent Israeli decisions to impose new legal and administrative measures in the occupied West Bank, saying they amount to an attempt to enforce unlawful sovereignty and accelerate annexation of Palestinian territory.
The West Bank is among the territories that the Palestinians seek for a future independent state. Much of it is under Israeli military control, with limited Palestinian self-rule in some areas run by the Western-backed Palestinian Authority (PA).
Israel’s security cabinet approved a series of steps on Sunday that would make it easier for settlers in the occupied West Bank to buy land while granting Israeli authorities more enforcement powers over Palestinians. The measures reportedly include scrapping decades-old regulations that prevent Jewish private citizens buying land in the West Bank. They are also reported to include allowing Israeli authorities to administer some religious sites, and expand supervision and enforcement in areas under PA administration in matters of environmental hazards, water offenses and damage to archaeological sites.
In a joint statement issued in Islamabad, the foreign ministries of Pakistan, Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Türkiye, Saudi Arabia and Qatar said Israel had no sovereignty over the occupied Palestinian territory and accused it of pursuing measures aimed at entrenching settlement activity and imposing a new legal and administrative reality on the ground.
“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, adding that such actions were accelerating attempts at “illegal annexation and the displacement of the Palestinian people.”
The ministers warned that continued Israeli expansionist policies and “illegal measures” in the West Bank were fueling violence and instability across the region.
They said the actions constituted “a blatant violation of international law,” undermined the two-state solution and infringed on the Palestinian people’s right to establish an independent and sovereign state along the pre-1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
The statement said these measures were “null and void” and in clear violation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334, which condemns Israeli actions aimed at altering the demographic and legal status of territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem.
Calling on the international community to act, the foreign ministers urged states to fulfill their “legal and moral responsibilities” and to compel Israel to halt what they described as dangerous escalation in the West Bank and inflammatory statements by Israeli officials.
They reiterated that fulfilling the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination and statehood through a two-state solution, in line with international resolutions and the Arab Peace Initiative, remained “the only path” to achieving lasting peace, security and stability in the region.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling coalition includes many pro-settler members who want Israel to annex the West Bank, land captured in the 1967 Middle East war to which Israel cites biblical and historical ties.
The United Nations’ highest court said in a non-binding advisory opinion in 2024 that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories and settlements there is illegal and should be ended as soon as possible. Israel disputes this view.
