Oireachtas

Israel move on West Bank land a ‘nail in coffin’ of two-state solution

Israeli ambassador says 1,000 appropriated acres are of ‘emotional importance for all Israelis’

Construction hard hats left on metal building poles on the roof of a new multi-storey building in the sprawling Jewish settlement of Beitar Illit, in the West Bank, after the Palestinian workers left for the day yesterday. The US and European states have protested to Israel over its plan to appropriate 1,000 acres of land belonging to Palestinian villages in the Gush Etzion area, and declare that state lands. Photograph: Jim Hollander/EPA
Construction hard hats left on metal building poles on the roof of a new multi-storey building in the sprawling Jewish settlement of Beitar Illit, in the West Bank, after the Palestinian workers left for the day yesterday. The US and European states have protested to Israel over its plan to appropriate 1,000 acres of land belonging to Palestinian villages in the Gush Etzion area, and declare that state lands. Photograph: Jim Hollander/EPA
Pamela Duncan
Thu Sept 04 2014 - 01:02

The appropriation by Israel of almost 1,000 acres of West Bank land is a "a nail in the coffin of a two-state solution" the Palestinian ambassador to Ireland has said. During the first of two sessions of the Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs yesterday, Ahmad Abdelrazek condemned Israel's claim on 990 acres of land near Bethlehem less than a week after an Egyptian-brokered Gaza ceasefire agreement.

“The move paves the way for the construction of a new settlement . . . this move aims at expelling Palestinians out of their homes and out of [the] future state of Palestine,” he said.

“Since the beginning of the Oslo agreement, we were clear about the two-state solution, that’s why we don’t understand why the Israelis . . . continue to construct settlements and expropriate lands,” Mr Abdelrazek told the committee.

During the later appearance by the Israeli ambassador to Ireland, Boaz Modai, the committee chairman, Fine Gael's Pat Breen, asked him about what he described as the "confiscation" of almost 1,000 acres of West Bank land.

READ SOME MORE

Senator David Norris noted that Israeli finance minister Yair Lapid had "condemned the expropriation of land", adding that the cabinet minister had said it "harmed the state of Israel". "Why was it so urgent to create another crisis by acting so blatantly illegally?" Mr Norris asked.

However, Mr Modai defended the move which he said involved a "really tiny" piece of land in Gush Etzion. He said the land had had a Jewish presence for "thousands of years" before the war of independence, and the area was of "emotional importance for all Israelis".