UNSC forum raps illegal Israeli settlement expansion in occupied Palestine

A special United Nations Security Council (UNSC) session has denounced the Zionist entity for building “illegal settlements” in the occupied Palestinian territories, paving the way for a Security Council resolution against the Israeli regime.

The session, categorized as an "Arria-Formula" meeting or an informal session, was held at the UN headquarters in New York on Friday at the request of UNSC member states Angola, Malaysia, Venezuela, Senegal and Egypt, with a push from the Palestinians.

Lara Friedman, the director of policy and government relations for Americans for Peace Now, also criticized Israel's settlement activities, calling them “illegal growth.”

She further said that the Tel Aviv regime had illegally granted settlement expansion permits, which would “lead inevitably to permanent occupation” of the expropriated lands.

The US representative to the session, David Pressman, also said that Washington was “deeply concerned about continued settlement activity," which he described as "corrosive to peace.”

According to Americans for Peace Now, the number of Israeli settlements has grown dramatically over the past 20 years, with the construction of 11,000 new settler units authorized under Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Britain, France and Russia have already slammed Israeli settlement construction as an obstacle to peace and the establishment of a sustainable Palestinian state.

The Chinese envoy has also called for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state within the 1967 borders, with East al-Quds as its capital.

SS