A Palestinian political figure has called for internal unity and support from the international community to counter Israel's accelerating settlement expansion in the West Bank.
Israel on Tuesday advanced plans for the controversial E1 settlement project in the West Bank, publishing a tender for 1,234 housing units. The tender, published online by the Ministry of Construction and Housing, covers part of a wider plan for 3,401 housing units in E1, an area east of Jerusalem.
"The Israeli establishment is expanding settlements in the West Bank at a rate that is unprecedented, because their goal is to destroy any potential for a Palestinian state," said Mustafa Barghouti, member of the Palestine Liberation Organization's Central Council and Secretary-General of Palestinian National Initiative, in an interview with China Global Television Network (CGTN).
"The only solution for Palestinians is to be unified immediately, to put away all kinds of internal differences and have a new strategy against this terrible process of land appropriation, land annexation," he said.
Mustafa Barghouti called on the international community to support the establishment of an independent State of Palestine, and advance the two-State solution.
"The Palestinian Authority is absolutely incapable of responding to all of that, and it will not be able to do anything unless we unify all Palestinians together in one unified leadership around one specific goal: how strategically to encounter the settlers' terror and the settlers' expansion through consolidating the utmost possible steadfastness of the Palestinian people on the land," he said.
"So, the international community has to answer one question here: Do they still believe in international law or not? Palestine is the indicator. If Israel is allowed to continue, this would mean the end of the so-called international law, and the end of all arrangements that were created after the Second World War to create peace in the world," Barghouti said.
Palestinian political figure calls for unity to counter Israel's settlement in West Bank
