During a sombre session of the UN Security Council, the diplomat described settlement activity in that area, including East Jerusalem, as deeply alarming.
Between June 11 and September 11, six thousand 730 new housing units were approved or built and tenders were published for another thousand in settlements, he told the body.
Wennesland denounced other actions such as demolitions and confiscations along with the modification of an order implemented since the Oslo Accords that now gave a local commander the authority to plan and build in areas transferred to the Palestinian Authority.
“Israeli policies and practices are systematically altering the land in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), creating dangerous dynamics and an existential threat to the two-state solution,” warned the envoy to the 15-member body.
This, he said, has no legal validity and constitutes a flagrant violation of international law, of Council resolution 2334 and the recent advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
In this context, he considered the operation in that area by the Israel Defense Forces between August 28 and September 6 to be alarming, the largest in the West Bank since October 7, with dozens of Palestinians killed.
For his part, the Palestinian ambassador to the UN, Riyad Mansour, denounced the continued violations of international law by Israel, which “claims for itself all the guarantees granted by international law and the Charter of the United Nations, while rejecting and violating all obligations.”
The Council’s role is to uphold international law, not to modify it to adapt it to Israeli violations or sacrifice the UN Charter to please the country, the diplomat denounced.
Thursday’s meeting coincided with the approval the day before of a resolution in the General Assembly that considers the Israeli presence in the OPT illegal and calls for its withdrawal within 12 months.
The text, presented by Palestine and co-sponsored by dozens of countries, including Cuba, received 124 votes in favor, 14 against and 43 abstentions.
This is a historic step within the United Nations that responds to an advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice.
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