Paris (UNA-OIC) – France on Monday condemned the decision of Israeli occupation authorities to open up bidding for the construction of hundreds of new settler units, southeast of Jerusalem.
“France condemns the announcements relating to the construction of 1,257 homes in the Israeli settlement of GivatHamatos, in East Jerusalem,” the French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
“The expansion of this settlement is a direct challenge to the viability of a future Palestinian state, as the EU has repeatedly reaffirmed,” the ministry added, reiterating that “settlement activity is illegal under international law and undermines, on the ground, the two-state solution.”
“France calls on the Israeli authorities to reverse this decision. France calls for an end to any unilateral measures that undermine the two-state solution based on internationally agreed parameters, the only way to achieve just and lasting peace in the region.”
The Israel occupation authorities decided to move ahead with the construction of 1,257 settler units in the colonial settlement of Givat Hamatos, built on the land of the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Safafa, threatening to cut off Jerusalem from Bethlehem.
