JAKARTA/CAIRO dpa): Eight Muslim-majority countries on Tuesday condemned a new Israeli decision to register land in the West Bank as "state land," describing it as an illegal step and a flagrant violation of international law and international humanitarian law.
The joint statement said the decision approves procedures for the registration and settlement of land ownership across extensive areas of the occupied West Bank for the first time since 1967.
The Israeli government on Sunday approved the controversial proposal that makes it easier for Israeli settlers to purchase land in the West Bank.
It allows private Israeli individuals to buy land in the West Bank and transfers part of the territory's administration to Israeli civil authorities.
The foreign ministers of Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Pakistan, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Egypt said the step aims at imposing a new legal and administrative reality to consolidate control over the occupied land.
It also aims at undermining the two-state solution, eroding the prospects for an independent Palestinian state, and jeopardizing chances for a just and comprehensive peace in the region.
They also said the Israeli decision is "a grave escalation aimed at accelerating illegal settlement activity, land confiscation, entrenching Israeli control, and applying unlawful Israeli sovereignty over the Occupied Palestinian Territory and undermining the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people." -- dpa
