The Diplomat
The Spanish government yesterday called on the Israeli authorities to reverse the decision to build 800 new homes in Itamar, Beit El, Shavei Shomron, Oranit and Givat Ze’ev, Tal Menashe, Nofei Nehemia and other settlements in the occupied West Bank.
“The settlements in the territories occupied by Israel since 1967 constitute a violation of international law and endanger the viability of the two-state solution to achieve a just and lasting peace in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict”, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. “The announced decision is detrimental to the building of trust between the parties, which is necessary for the resumption of peace negotiations”, it added.
Spain has always condemned the policy of building settlements and annexing areas of the West Bank carried out by Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, both during the current phase of Pedro Sánchez (PSOE, in coalition with Unidas Podemos) and during the previous phase of Mariano Rajoy (PP). Specifically, the Spanish government condemned Israel’s policy of settlements and confiscation of Palestinian land on up to 35 occasions under the presidency of Rajoy (December 2011 to June 2018) and has done so on a dozen occasions since Pedro Sánchez took office.
Last October, the Spanish government even signed a joint declaration with Germany, France, Italy and the United Kingdom against the decision of the Israeli executive to build over 4,900 homes in the occupied West Bank, as it considered it violated international law and “further endangered the viability of the two-state solution to achieve a just and lasting peace in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict”. The signatory countries also warned that this decision represented “a counterproductive measure” in the light of the “positive developments” relating to the normalisation agreements between Israel and several Muslim countries, specifically the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco. The agreement with the United Arab Emirates included, in fact, Israel’s commitment to suspend the annexation of parts of the West Bank.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Arancha González Laya, made an official visit to Israel on 9 December, during which she asked the Israeli authorities to take advantage of the celebration of the 30th anniversary of the Madrid conference and the current fight against the COVID-19 pandemic to “build confidence between Israelis and Palestinians” and to promote the resumption of peace negotiations which have been at a standstill since 2014. The following day in Ramallah, González Laya discussed with her Palestinian counterpart, Riyadh al-Maliki, “the violations and unilateral measures committed by Israel on the ground, including the plan to annex Palestinian land and settlements, which are preventing the two-state solution from materialising”, as the Palestinian minister stated.
