‘Morally wrong’: Sa’ar slams countries condemning new West Bank settlements

Foreign minister says critical statement from 14 nations is ‘discriminatory’ against Jews and their right to live in the Land of Israel

Israel reacted furiously on Thursday to a condemnation by 14 countries, including France and Britain, of its approval of new settlements in the West Bank, calling the criticism discriminatory against Jews.

“Foreign governments will not restrict the right of Jews to live in the Land of Israel, and any such call is morally wrong and discriminatory against Jews,” said Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar.

“The cabinet decision to establish 11 new settlements and to formalize eight additional settlements is intended, among other things, to help address the security threats Israel is facing,” he said.

On Sunday, far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced that authorities had greenlit the settlements, saying the move was aimed at preventing the establishment of a Palestinian state.

“On the ground, we are blocking the establishment of a Palestinian terror state,” said Smotrich, a vocal proponent of settlement expansion and a settler himself.

Fourteen countries, including Britain, France, Germany, Spain and Canada, then issued a statement urging Israel to reverse its decision, “as well as the expansion of settlements.”

Such unilateral actions, they said, “violate international law” and risk undermining a fragile ceasefire in Gaza in force since October 10.

They also reaffirmed their “unwavering commitment to a comprehensive, just and lasting peace based on the two-state solution… where two democratic states, Israel and Palestine, live side-by-side in peace and security.”

Sa’ar, in his response, said “the blatant silence of foreign states regarding the Palestinian Authority’s illegal construction in Area C is extremely striking,” referring to West Bank areas that are under full Israeli civil and security control according to the Oslo Accords. Most Israeli settlements also lie in Area C.

Since the start of the war in Gaza in October 2023 with Hamas’s terror onslaught in Israel, international calls for the establishment of a Palestinian state have multiplied, with several countries moving to formally recognize a state of Palestine.

Among those countries were some that condemned the settlement expansion drive.

Israel has controlled the West Bank since capturing the territory from Jordan during the 1967 Six Day War, a conflict that also saw Israel take the Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem, the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights. Israel annexed East Jerusalem — a move not recognized by most of the international community — while the West Bank has remained under varying forms of Israeli military and civil control ever since. It ceded Sinai back to Egypt in the early 1980s.

Earlier this month, the United Nations said the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which are considered illegal under international law, had reached its highest level since at least 2017. Israel disputes the legal position, citing historic ties to the region and a security imperative in holding on to it.

The latest approvals bring to 69 the total number of settlements approved over the past three years by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, the most right-wing in Israel’s history.

The Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority has also condemned the latest approvals, accusing Israel of tightening its control over Palestinian land.

It claimed the approvals were a continuation of “apartheid, settlement, and annexation policies that undermine the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people.”