(AFP) Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Al-Maliki announced today, Wednesday, that the Israeli project for new construction works in a very sensitive area in the West Bank will undermine any hope for achieving a two-state solution.
He told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting of the Human Rights Council in Geneva that the project to build 3500 housing units for settlers in an area designated "E1" is more dangerous than any settlement project in the West Bank and will even eliminate any possibility to implement the plan proposed by US President Donald Trump, which was rejected by the Palestinians.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged to build 3,500 settlement units in the "E1" area in occupied Jerusalem.
The Palestinians and NGOs declared that if Israel built settlements in this area between Maale Adumim and Jerusalem, it would divide the West Bank into two parts and prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state.
At the end of January, the US President presented a project to settle the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which stipulates making Jerusalem the "indivisible capital of Israel" and annexing the Jordan Valley and more than 130 Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
Riyad al-Maliki welcomed a list drawn up by the United Nations of the 112 foreign companies active in Israeli settlements, despite its illegal nature in the eyes of international law.
He stated that the Palestinian authorities are studying legal measures to obtain compensation from these companies that exploit resources without the permission of the legal owners of these lands.
He added that we are ready to receive these companies if they wish to work legally in the Palestinian territories.
