“We strongly condemn Israel’s decision to expropriate 370 acres of agricultural land near Jericho (Ariha) in the West Bank under occupation of Israel which belongs to Palestinians,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement released on Friday.
“These kinds of settlement activities, which destroy ground for a two-state solution, are null and void in regards to international law and is not accepted in anyway,” the statement added, as reported by Turkey-based newspaper The Hürriyet Daily News.
On Wednesday, Israeli media reported that the regime was preparing to announce the appropriation of 370 acres of land north of the West Bank settlement of Almog, near the Palestinian city of Jericho in the Jordan Valley.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon denounced the move and Palestinian officials said they would push for a resolution at the United Nations against Israel’s settlement policies.
The United Nations (UN) and most countries regard the Israeli settlements as illegal because the territories were captured by Israel in a war in 1967 and are hence subject to the Geneva Conventions, which forbid construction on occupied lands.
The presence and continued expansion of Israeli settlements in occupied Palestine has created a major obstacle for the efforts to establish peace in the Middle East. The Palestinian Authority wants the West Bank as part of its future independent state, with al-Quds (Jerusalem) as its capital.