TURKEY CONDEMNS ISRAEL’S SETTLEMENT EXPANSION PLANS

Ankara, 4 Rabi’ul Awwal 1436/26 December 2014 (MINA) – Turkey condemned Thursday Israel’s decision to expand further its settlements inside occupied East Jerusalem.

In a statement, the Turkish Foreign Ministry condemned Israel’s illegal settlement activities in occupied Palestinian land and its recent decision “to approve the construction of 380 new settlements in East Jerusalem despite all the warnings of the international community,” Middle East Monitor (MEMO) quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting, Friday.

An Israeli building committee Wednesday approved the construction of 380 new Jewish-only settlement units in occupied East Jerusalem, out of which 307 houses would be built in the Ramot settlement and 73 in the Har Homa settlement, the Jerusalem Post newspaper reported.

According to the newspaper, the new housing units were part of a large-scale project approved in August 2011 to build some 1,000 settlement units in the area, for which building tenders were issued in April 2012.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem during the 1967 Middle East War. It later annexed the historic city in 1980, claiming it as the capital of the self-proclaimed Jewish state, a move that was never recognized by the international community.

International law views the West Bank and East Jerusalem as occupied territories and considers all Jewish settlements on the land to be illegal.

“These steps, that destroy the ground for the two-state solution and aims to create a de facto situation in the occupied Jerusalem, are in violation of the international law, and are unacceptable,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in the statement. (T/P002/P3)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)