On Thursday 11 July, the foreign ministers of the G7 countries – Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States – and the European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, joined the UN and the EU in condemning recent Israeli decisions concerning: the legalisation of five outposts in the West Bank; the declaration of more than 1,270 hectares of land in the West Bank as ‘state lands’, described as “the largest such declaration of state land since the Oslo Accords”; and the decision to extend existing colonies with 5,295 new homes and the creation of three new colonies (see EUROPE 13446/2).
“The Government of Israel’s settlement program is inconsistent with international law, and counterproductive to the cause of peace”, the ministers reiterated in their statement, urging – “as in previous cases” – the Israeli government to reverse this decision.
The G7 countries also call on Israel to release all withheld clearance revenues in accordance with the Paris Protocols, to remove or ease measures aggravating the economic situation in the West Bank, and to take the necessary steps to ensure that correspondent banking services between Israeli and Palestinian banks remain in place with appropriate controls. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)