A coalition of nations led by Egypt, alongside ten European countries and several Islamic states, issued a strong condemnation on Monday, 23 February, of recent Israeli decisions aimed at expanding control over the West Bank, emphasizing their implications for regional stability and the viability of a two-state solution. In a joint statement, the foreign ministers from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, Turkey, Brazil, and European countries, including France, Denmark, and Sweden, expressed deep concern over measures that reclassify Palestinian land as Israeli “state land.” They characterized these actions as violations of international law and significant extensions of Israeli authority in territories recognized as occupied. The statement follows Israel’s controversial approval of the E1 settlement project, a contentious Israeli plan to build thousands of housing units in a 12-square-kilometer area east of Jerusalem, which the ministers argue threatens the very foundation of a future Palestinian state. They labeled the expansion of illegal settlements, coupled with the government’s systematic efforts to establish its administration in the occupied territories, as a “flagrant violation” of numerous United Nations Security Council resolutions and the advisory opinion issued by the International Court of Justice in…
