Alwaght- Denmark has called on Israeli government to back down from its approval of new housing units in settlements in the occupied West Bank.
"Denmark shared the European Union's call on Israel to reverse its latest approval of over 3000 new housing units in settlements in the occupied West Bank," Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said in a Danish Foreign Ministry post on X.
Copenhagen reiterated that the new settlements are illegal under international law, and called the expansion "a significant obstacle for peace."
In an earlier posting, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell "condemned" the approval of over 3,426 housing units, further expanding illegal settlements across the West Bank.
"We urge Israel to reverse this decision," he said.
Estimates indicate that about 700,000 Israeli settlers are living in 164 settlements and 116 outposts in the occupied West Bank.
International laws label all Jewish settlements in the occupied territories as illegal.
International observers have said Israeli settlements are designed to preempt any attempt to form a geographically contiguous Palestinian state including the now-occupied West Bank and East Al-Quds (Jerusalem).
In addition to Denmark, there have been substantial reactions to the plan mainly pushed forward by hardline Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.
Jordan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the settlements were unilateral and illegal measures that violate international law and undermine peace efforts and the establishment of a Palestinian state, reported Aljazeera.
Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs also “condemned in the strongest terms” the approval, stressing that such moves “pose a serious threat to international efforts aimed at implementing the two-state solution and hinder the resumption of the peace process”, according to state media.
Similarly, Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said there is a need to “provide hope for the Palestinian people, enable them to obtain their rights to live in safety, and establish their Palestinian state within the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital, in accordance with the Arab Peace Initiative and relevant international resolution”.
Further afield, in Europe, Germany has asked Israel to withdraw the plans, adding they are “a serious violation of international law”.
“We strongly condemn the approval of further settlement units in the West Bank,” the country’s Federal Foreign Office said in a statement.
Earlier, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the plans were “illegal, disappointing, and counterproductive to achieving enduring peace”.
“Our administration maintains firm opposition to settlement expansion,” Blinken said at a news conference in Argentina’s capital Buenos Aires last week.
“In our judgement, it only weakens, not strengthens Israel’s security,” he added, although he made no mention of tangible consequences Israel could face for settlement expansion.
