Arab League condemns Israel’s settlement expansion

Cairo: The Arab League Saturday condemned the Israeli government's decisions to expand settlements and withdraw the powers of the Palestinian Authority in Area B of the occupied West Bank under the Oslo peace accords. Secretary-General of the pan-Arab organization Ahmed Aboul Gheit called the decisions "a coup" against the Oslo Accords, a return of the entire situation to the zero point and a consolidation of the occupation. He called on the international community "to see the Israeli government for what it is, a far-right racist government not interested in peace, that seeks to dismantle any symbol of the Palestinian Authority and consolidate the reality of occupation across the West Bank." The latest decisions shows that the Israeli government entirely succumbs to the far right as it seeks to undermine all components of the two-state solution and embarrass the international community, which took an opposite direction, expanding its recognition of a Palestinian state, Aboul Gheit's spokesman Jamal Rushdie said. He said Israeli actions would further inflame the situation in the West Bank, turn back the clock before the Oslo Accords, and put the Palestinians under a direct regime of occupation, which can only be labeled as apartheid. Source: Jordan News Agency