On Thursday 23 August, the spokesperson for the European External Action Service again spoke out against the latest announcements made by the Israeli authorities regarding new settlements.
"Within the past two weeks the Israeli authorities have advanced plans and tenders for over two thousand settlement units in the West Bank including East Jerusalem. If implemented, these plans would further jeopardise the prospect of a contiguous and viable future Palestinian state", the spokesperson said in a press release.
On Wednesday 22 August, the Peace Now anti-settlement organisation announced that Israel had authorised construction plans for over 1,000 settlement units, notably in the Adam settlement near Ramallah, where a Palestinian killed an inhabitant in July (see EUROPE 12072).
The EEAS spokesperson stated that successive EU Foreign Affairs Council conclusions underline the EU's strongly opposition to Israel's settlement policy "which is illegal under international law and an obstacle to peace".
A growing trend
In a report published in July, the Office of the European Union Representative for the West Bank, Gaza Strip and UNRWA revealed that in the first six months of 2018 the advancement of housing units continued at a higher level than in the second half of 2017. "More than 6,000 housing units in the occupied West Bank including East Jerusalem were advanced in different stages of the planning and implementation process. This development will, over several years, enable potentially more than 27,000 Israeli settlers to move to the Occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem", the report states.
Over 2,100 of these 6,000 units are new – in other words, they were not introduced in the planning circuit before 2018. "An important development during the reporting period was the promotion of two plans that would establish two entirely new settlements (Zayit Ra’anan and Brosh) by authorising illegal outposts and the establishment of a new settlement near Hebron, north of the settlement of Kiryat Arba", the report adds. It also says that "the continued construction of and the approval of funds for large scale road infrastructure projects in the occupied West Bank that improves the connectivity of settlements to Israel" is another subject of concern.
According to the Office of the European Union Representative, there are currently approximately 600,000 Israeli settlers: 399,300 in 143 locations in the West Bank and 215,000 Israelis in 11 locations in East Jerusalem. "4.6% of the total Israeli population resides today in the Occupied West Bank excluding East Jerusalem", the report states.
Gymnich to discuss Middle East
In a press release, the EEAS spokesperson said the EU would continue to engage with both parties and with its international and regional partners to support a resumption of a meaningful process towards a negotiated two-state solution.
According to a European source, the Middle East will be one of the issues discussed by the EU foreign affairs ministers at their informal meeting (Gymnich) in Vienna on 30-31 August. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)