WEST BANK (Dispatches) –
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said on Monday that all Zionist settlements in Palestine, including Homesh, are illegal.
“All Israeli occupation settlements built on the land of the State of Palestine, including the formerly evacuated Homesh settlement in the north of the West Bank, are illegal,” Abbas’ official spokesman, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, said in a statement.
He stressed that “the continuation of the Israeli occupation aggression will not achieve security or peace for anyone.”
Abu Rudeineh added: “The decision to allow the return of settlers to the Homesh settlement outpost, which was evacuated in 2005, is condemned and rejected.”
The spokesman pointed out that “all UN resolutions, most notably 2334, stated clearly that all settlements in the Palestinian territories, including East Al-Quds, violate international law and must be removed.”
He stated that “Israel is acting in defiance of the will of the international community, particularly the U.S. administration’s recent statements regarding the unacceptable return of settlers to Homesh.”
The remarks came as Zionist settlers on Monday relocated a religious school originally established on private Palestinian land in the illegal outpost of Homesh to nearby land.
Earlier this year, Zionist lawmakers approved a controversial piece of legislation that would allow four abandoned Jewish settlements in the West Bank - Homesh, Sa-Nur, Ganim and Kadim - to be re-established after they were dismantled in 2005.
Monday’s steps to tentatively re-establish the settlement was made with the approval of minister of war Yoav Gallant, and was given the green light by prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The Zionist regime’s military is allowing settlers to enter and exit Homesh freely, but journalists have been blocked from reporting on the construction efforts, according to Haaretz.
The regime is working on rolling back elements of then-prime minister Ariel Sharon’s plan for disengagement from Gaza, which saw the four settlements in the West Bank also evacuated.
The attorney general’s West Bank office has opposed the relocation of the school and reiterated that the move to re-establish the Homesh settlement was illegal.
The regime ordered the military to no longer prevent settlers from entering Homesh and to provide security.