Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry voiced “deep concern” on Tuesday over Israeli authorities’ decision to invite contractor bids to build 1,257 new settlements near East Jerusalem and said it contravened international resolutions.
“The ministry affirms the Kingdom’s condemnation and rejection of the move, which contravenes international resolutions,” it said in a statement.
Israel moved ahead on Sunday with a settler housing plan in the area, a step that critics said aimed to shore up the project before US President-elect Joe Biden takes office.
UAE's historic deal with Israeli... settlements? #Palestine https://t.co/lBnQELMphV
— SaQu (@saqno1) November 19, 2020
On its website, the Israel Land Authority (ILA) invited contractor bids for building 1,257 homes in Givat Hamatos, under a plan revived in February by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu after it had been effectively frozen by international opposition.
Bidding ends on January 18, the ILA said, two days before Biden is to be sworn in to replace US President Donald Trump, whose administration has been supportive of Israeli settlement on occupied land Palestinians seek for a state.
Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said in a statement that settlements were illegal under international law and the tender was part of Israeli efforts “to kill the internationally-backed two-state solution.”
The UN envoy to the Middle East peace process Nickolay Mladenov said he was “very concerned” by Israel’s decision that would make it even harder to establish a contiguous Palestinian state.
“If built, it would further consolidate a ring of settlements between Jerusalem and Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank,” Mladenov said.
Israeli settlements are illegal under international law as they violate the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits an occupying power from transferring its population to the area it occupies.
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) November 15, 2020
Palestine and Israel: Mapping an annexation https://t.co/zuqOjdmxeh pic.twitter.com/wPqpi23e64
Opponents of the project in the Givat Hamatos area said it would sever parts of East Jerusalem from the nearby Palestinian town of Bethlehem in the West Bank. The ILA gave no date for the start of construction.
Peace Now, an Israeli anti-settlement group, accused Netanyahu’s government of “taking advantage of the final weeks of the Trump administration in order to set facts on the ground” at Givat Hamatos.
As vice-president in Democrat Barack Obama’s administration, Biden, on a visit to Israel and the West Bank in 2010, publicly scolded Israel over a plan it announced during his trip to build 1,600 homes in the Ramat Shlomo settlement.
But Biden said during the recent presidential campaign that he will not reverse Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem, whose future status is at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as Israel’s capital.
The United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan earlier this year signed agreements toward normalising relations with Israel in a strategic realignment of Middle Eastern countries against Iran.
Riyadh has quietly acquiesced to the UAE and Bahrain deals, though it has stopped short of endorsing them and has signalled it is not ready to take action itself.
Saudi Arabia, an Arab powerhouse and the birthplace of Islam, supports the establishment of a Palestinian state based on the borders before the 1967 Middle East war, with East Jerusalem as its capital. During the 1967 war, Israel captured territory including the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which it still occupies.
Data from a rare Saudi public opinion poll published in August by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy suggests many Saudi citizens are not in favour of a deal with Israel.
“A mere nine percent of Saudis” agreed that people in favour of business or sports contacts with Israelis should be allowed to do so, according to the Institute’s David Pollock.
This article has been adapted from its original source.
