The Palestinian National Council (PNC) said that a bill to include higher education institutions in Israeli settlements in the West Bank under Israeli sovereignty is part of a plan to annex settlements in the West Bank, which the Knesset is expected to ratify soon. This comes a long side with the practical application of the decision of the ruling Likud Party to annex the West Bank to Israeli sovereignty.
The PNC said in a statement issued by its speaker Saleem Al-Zanoon on Wednesday that Israel is continuing its policy of defying the will of the international community, the international law and violating international legitimacy resolutions, the latest of which is resolution 2334 where it considered the settlement in all its forms is illegal, and called on Israel to immediately cease all its settlement policies in the Palestinian territories occupied in 1967, including the city of Jerusalem.
The Inter-Parliamentary Union, in particular, and other regional parliamentary associations, called for the rejection and condemnation of this racist law that falls within the settlement policy led by the occupation government and aimed at preventing the establishment of a Palestinian State with Jerusalem as its capital, as well as violating the Geneva Conventions which considers settlements are a crime and perpotrators must be held accountable.
He called on the United Nations to bear its' responsibilities and work to confront the Israeli flagrant challenges to its resolutions, save the two-state solution, take steps to stop Israel's violations of the rights of the Palestinian people and stop the policy of ignoring the occupation and its racism which is destroying any possibility of a peaceful solution to the Palestinian cause.
The bill calls for the abolition of the Council of Higher Education in charge of Israeli academic institutions in the settlements established in the 1967 occupied territories and transferring the responsibility to the Israeli Ministry of Education. These institutions include: Ariel University, Elkana College (Salfit District), Alon Shabot College Jerusalem) and the Herzog College in Alon Shvut settlement near the Bethlehem and Jerusalem Governorates