Eight Muslim countries, including Pakistan, in a joint statement on Monday, warned against the “continued expansionist Israeli policies” in the occupied West Bank.
In the statement, the foreign minister of Pakistan — along with those of Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Indonesia, Turkiye, Saudi Arabia and Qatar — “condemned in the strongest terms the illegal Israeli decisions and measures aimed at imposing unlawful Israeli sovereignty, entrenching settlement activity, and enforcing a new legal and administrative reality in the occupied West Bank, thereby accelerating attempts at its illegal annexation and the displacement of the Palestinian people”.
The statement comes a day after Israel’s security cabinet approved a series of steps that would make it easier for settlers in the occupied West Bank to buy land while granting Israeli authorities more enforcement powers over Palestinians, according to Israeli media.
Citing statements by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Defence Minister Israel Katz, Israeli news sites Ynet and Haaretz said the measures included scrapping decades-old regulations that prevent Jewish private citizens buying land in the West Bank.
The statement issued on Monday by the eight Muslim countries reaffirmed that “Israel has no sovereignty over the occupied Palestinian territory”.
“The ministers warned against the continued expansionist Israeli policies and illegal measures pursued by the Israeli government in the occupied West Bank, which fuel violence and conflict in the region,” the statement said.
The ministers expressed “absolute rejection” of Israel’s actions, which they maintained “constitute a blatant violation of international law, undermine the two-state solution, and represent an assault on the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to realise their independent and sovereign state”.
“Such actions also undermine the ongoing efforts for peace and stability in the region,” the statement added.
The ministers also held that “these illegal measures in the occupied West Bank are null and void and constitute a clear violation of UN Security Council resolutions, particularly Resolution 2334, which condemns all Israeli measures aimed at altering the demographic composition, character, and status of the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967”.
In that regard, the ministers recalled the “2024 advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which found that Israel’s policies and practices in the occupied Palestinian territory and its continued presence is illegal, affirmed the necessity of ending the Israeli occupation, and the nullity of the annexation of occupied Palestinian lands.”
The ministers, in their statement, called on the international community to “fulfil its legal and moral responsibilities and to compel Israel to halt its dangerous escalation in the occupied West Bank and the inciting statements of its officials.”
“They stressed that the fulfilment of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people to self-determination and statehood,” the ministers said.
They further underscored the need for the statehood to be “based on the two-state solution in accordance with resolutions of international legitimacy and the Arab Peace Initiative,” which the minister said “remains the only path to achieving just and comprehensive peace that ensures security and stability in the region”.
