RAMALLAH, Palestine, Jan 9 (NNN-WAFA) – Palestine slammed remarks by Israeli Defence Minister, Naftali Bennett, and U.S. Ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, over annexation of Area C of the West Bank.
“We strongly condemn the racist remarks and positions of Friedman and Bennett, which we consider as reaffirmation of the so-called ‘Deal of the Century,’ which has nothing to do with peace or serious negotiations,” said the Palestinian Foreign Ministry.
“This is the peak of undermining international legitimacy and resolutions … their remarks are additional confessions of their involvement in the crime of settlements and confiscation of Palestinian lands,” said the statement.
The statement accused Friedman of dealing with the conflict as an “economic relief” rather than a political question.
Speaking at a policy forum in Jerusalem, Bennett said, he declared that “the ‘C territory’ belongs to Israel.”
Addressing the same forum, Friedman said, the right of Israel “to settle in ‘Judea and Samaria’ (the West Bank) is so obvious, the goalposts started to move.”
Area C accounts for over 60 percent of the West Bank’s 5,655-square-kilometre area.
Under the Oslo Accords, signed between the Palestine Liberation Organisation and Israel, in the 1990’s, the West Bank was divided into three areas: Area A under Palestinian control, Area B under joint Palestinian-Israeli control, and Area C under full Israeli control.
