The OrganiSation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) will convene an emergency session of its foreign ministers this week over Israel’s latest push to expand illegal settlements in the West Bank and advance its long-running project of annexing occupied Palestinian land.
In a statement released by its General Secretariat, the organisation said the meeting, to be held on Thursday in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, was requested by Palestine to ‘coordinate positions and discuss ways of action to confront these invalid decisions.’
The OIC condemned Israel’s measures as deliberate attempts to rewrite the ‘legal, political and demographic status of Palestinian territory,’ warning that such actions are part of a systematic strategy to erase Palestinian rights and dismantle the prospect of a ‘two-state solution.’
The announcement comes amid a surge in Israel’s rhetoric signalling a drive towards the full occupation of the West Bank, after months in which its focus had centred on annexation plans and the ongoing ethnic cleansing of the Gaza Strip.
Earlier this month, Israel approved a plan to register vast areas of the West Bank as ‘state property,’ the first such move since the regime seized the territory in 1967.
The decision has triggered sharp warnings from Palestinian authorities and resistance groups, who say the measure is a clear prelude to formal annexation.
Registration of land in the occupied territories establishes permanent ownership, effectively consolidating Israeli control over the Palestinian lands.
The West Bank is among the areas that Palestinians seek for a future independent state, along with Gaza and occupied East Jerusalem.
Much of the West Bank now remains under direct Israeli military control, while Palestinian self-rule is restricted to fragmented enclaves administered by the Western-backed Palestinian Authority (PA).
Meanwhile, the leader of Yemen’s Ansarullah resistance movement said the latest remarks by US Ambassador to the Israeli-occupied lands, Mike Huckabee, on Israeli West Asia expansion show that the Muslim world is targeted, and there is no choice but confrontation.
‘The remarks attest to the United States’ all-out support to Israel to dominate the Arab region, and impose control over the Muslim world,’ Abdul-Malik al-Houthi said in a televised speech broadcast live from the Yemeni capital Sana’a late on Sunday.
He noted that Huckabee’s remarks are consistent with Washington’s long-standing positions, pointing out that the 70-year-old American diplomat has frequently voiced support for Israel’s attempts to control the region, its peoples, and their resources.
He sharply criticised Israel for violating its international commitments, stating that the US, as Israel’s guarantor, is a partner in the latter’s ‘crimes, aggression, objectives, and conspiracies.’