Knesset Agrees To Additional Funds Of IDR 4.4 Trillion For Israeli Projects In The West Bank Despite Criticism

JAKARTA - The Knesset Financial Committee (Israeli Parliament) has approved nearly a billion additional fund sheaves for roads and transportation infrastructure in the West Bank.

This was described by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich as a lesson on "how to apply de facto sovereignty" to the disputed region.

In total, around NIS 918 million (IDR 4,477,123,177,366) will be spent on increasing existing roads, paving new roads, building shortcuts for motorists in the West Bank to avoid Palestinian cities, and to improve road infrastructure. others.

"This is how to apply facto sovereignty. This is how to bring one million people (to the West Bank). This is how to get rid of the idea of a Palestinian terrorist state," Smotrich enthusiastically announced the new funding, reported The Times of Israel, July 24.

The ultranationalist minister said the "massive investment" was part of a strategic plan to "strengthen settlements, physically and politically connect the region with the State of Israel, and make sovereignty a fait asset in the field."

Meanwhile, Transportation Minister Miri Regev agrees with Smotrich, saying the new fund is a "direct continuation of the policy: sovereignty in practice, through action," and said during his tenure as minister, "billions" had been invested in transportation infrastructure in the West Bank.

The term "implementing sovereignty" is used by the right-wing Israeli group to annex the West Bank. In addition, the annexation of the West Bank is an old aspiration of the group.

Smotrich has publicly advocated and advanced the West Bank de facto annexation policy over the past two and a half years, with a series of administrative measures taking the region under civilian, non-military rule, as has been the case since 1967, and massively expanding settlement projects.

As previously reported, Knesset approved a non-binding motion that supports West Bank annexation in a vote held on Wednesday.

The resolution, which was passed 71-13 votes, states the West Bank is an "indivisible part of Israel's land, the country's historical, cultural, and spiritual homeland of Jews" and that "Israel has natural, historical and legal rights over all territory of the Land of Israel."

Knesset's resolution calls on the government to "implement Israel's sovereignty, law, judgment and administration to all Jewish residential areas of all kinds in JAPAN, Samaria, and the Jordan Valley," Israel's term for the West Bank.

The motion was filed by Knesset members of the Reigius Zionism, Simcha Rothman, Knesset members of Likud, Dan Illouz, and Knesset members of the opposition, YiIsrael Beytenu, Oded Forer.

Yesterday, Indonesia together with nine other countries from the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), on Thursday strongly condemned the Knesset vote regarding Israel's annexation in the West Bank, Palestine.

In a joint statement, Indonesia, Turkey, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Nigeria, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates strongly condemn the Israeli Knesset's approval of the occupied West Bank.

"This declaration is considered a blatant and unacceptable violation of international law, as well as a striking violation of the relevant UN Security Council resolutions, especially Resolution Number 242 (in 1967), 338 (1973), and 2334 (2016)," the states said in a joint statement.

"These resolutions emphasize the inaccuracy of all actions and decisions seeking to legitimize the occupation, including settlement activities in occupied Palestinian territories since 1967," the countries said.

The countries further emphasize that Israel has no sovereignty over the occupied Palestinian Territory, and emphasize that Israel's unilateral action has no legal consequences and cannot change the legal status of the occupied Palestinian Territory, especially East Jerusalem, which remains an integral part of the occupied Palestinian Territory.