The Knesset authorised Israelis to return to the four West Bank demolished outposts 18 years after Israel withdrew from Gaza.
Qatar has expressed its strong condemnation of the Israeli occupation’s approval of a law that allows for the resettlement of evacuated outposts.
The Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that this law solidifies the occupation and its expansionist policies, which violates international law and various United Nations resolutions.
Last Monday, the Israeli parliament repealed portions of the 2005 Disengagement Law, which ordered the evacuation of four northern West Bank settlements, allowing settlers to return to the illegal outposts in the occupied Palestinian territory.
The law, which formalised Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from Gaza, also included the evacuation of four West Bank outposts at the time.
Settlement authorities have since attempted to repeal the law and return to the four outposts. Thirty-one Knesset members voted in favour of the rollback, which was backed by the nationalist ‘Religious Zionism’ and far-right Jewish Power parties.
The ministry urged the international community and the UN to take immediate action in response to these illegal practices, as they pose a serious threat to regional and global security and stability.
It further emphasised the importance of protecting the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, including their right to establish an independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital, based on the pre-1967 borders.
Qatar reiterated its firm stance in support of the Palestinian cause and called for a just, comprehensive and lasting solution to the Palestine-Israeli conflict, as outlined in the Arab Peace Initiative and international legitimacy resolutions.
The 2005 Disengagement Law
The 2005 Disengagement Law prohibits Israelis from remaining on abandoned lands in Gaza and the northern West Bank.
Settlers had waged a fierce public opinion campaign against Israel’s withdrawal from the Gush Katif region of Gaza and the four north West Bank outposts.
Since then, Israel’s right-wing groups have largely accepted the withdrawal from the Gaza Strip as irreversible. Nonetheless, settlers continued to campaign for their return to the four demolished northern West Bank outposts of Homesh, Ganim, Kadim and Sa-Nur.
The campaign to re-establish Homesh has become particularly symbolic of Israel’s right-wing movement. A makeshift Orthodox school has been established there, and the army is constantly attempting to prevent young settlers from reaching the remote location.
Nonetheless, the IDF avoids violent clashes with settlers, turning a blind eye on several occasions.
