UN: Settlement Construction in West Bank is a 'War Crime'

The UN human rights office has denounced the Israeli Finance Minister's plan to construct a settlement in the West Bank as a war crime. The settlement would bisect the occupied Palestinian territories.

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a far-right figure, approved plans to erect a settlement that would separate Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem from the West Bank, with the aim of "burying" the "idea of a Palestinian state."

The plan approved by Bezalel Smotrich is the "E1 Plan," which was frozen in 2012 due to opposition.

The UN human rights office spokesperson stated that the plan would divide the West Bank into isolated enclaves and emphasized that it is a "war crime for an occupying power to transfer its own civilian population into the territory it occupies."

Approximately 700,000 Israeli settlers live among 2.7 million Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

The international community has condemned the expansion of settlements as illegal, pointing out that it undermines the viability of a two-state solution.

The two-state solution for the Middle East envisions a Palestinian state in East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza.