Nearly 100 Countries Condemn Israeli Moves to Consolidate Control in the West Bank

Overview

• Brazil joined a bloc of nearly 100 countries in a joint statement calling the Israeli measures illegal and urging their immediate reversal.
• The Israeli cabinet reopened land registration in the occupied territory to allow listings as state property and to enable direct purchases by Israeli Jews, a step critics describe as de facto annexation.
• Israel’s housing ministry announced a plan for 2,780 homes east of the Geva Binyamin/Adam settlement, a project costed at 120 million shekels that still requires Civil Administration planning approval.
• Israeli NGOs Paz Agora and Ir Amim warn the initiatives would effectively extend Jerusalem’s reach into the West Bank for the first time since 1967.
• Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said he supports encouraging Palestinian emigration from Gaza and the West Bank and pledged to overturn the Oslo Accords.