RIYADH: Saudi Arabia and seven other countries have severely condemned Israel’s decision to start land registration in parts of the occupied West Bank, which would allow large areas to be declared “state land.”
The Kingdom’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan was joined on Tuesday by Jordan, the UAE, Qatar, Indonesia, Pakistan, Egypt, and Turkiye in denouncing the move as a “grave escalation” that will undermine the two-state solution.
The Israeli government approved the process on Sunday for the West Bank’s Area C for the first time since 1967. It would mean that if Palestinians cannot prove ownership, Israel would be able to register the land as property of the state.
The foreign ministers’ statement said the move was aimed at “accelerating illegal settlement activity, land confiscation, entrenching Israeli control, and applying unlawful Israeli sovereignty over the Occupied Palestinian Territory and undermining the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people.”
The statement added that the measures represented a “flagrant violation of international law,” including an International Court of Justice advisory opinion that deemed attempts to alter the legal, historical, and demographic status of the territory as illegal.
