Muscat: Qatari daily Al-Raya on Saturday condemned the Israeli occupation's relentless expansion of its settlement project across the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem, warning that the accelerating pace of settlement construction, coupled with escalating settler violence against Palestinians and their property, is systematically eroding the prospects for peace and further undermining the viability of the two-state solution.
According to Qatar News Agency, in an editorial titled "Settlement Expansion: A Systematic Policy of Palestinian Displacement," Al-Raya said the tender for 1,234 settlement units east of Jerusalem, under the E1 plan, goes far beyond urban expansion, describing it as a dangerous move aimed at reshaping the geography of the area, severing East Jerusalem from its Palestinian surroundings in the West Bank, and breaking the territorial contiguity between the northern and southern parts of the West Bank. Such measures, the newspaper warned, directly threaten the prospects of establishing an independent, geographically contiguous, and viable Palestinian state.
The newspaper noted that the danger posed by the project is compounded by the unprecedented acceleration of settlement activity and settler violence, including the establishment of new settlements and outposts, the seizure of land, the demolition of homes and structures, and the forced displacement of Palestinian communities. It said these practices constitute a clear violation of international law and relevant international resolutions, while turning settlement expansion into a systematic instrument for forcibly redrawing the map of Palestinian land.
The newspaper also highlighted the escalation of settler violence, which has assumed increasingly severe forms, ranging from attacks on Palestinians and their property to the besieging of homes and preventing families from accessing basic necessities. It cited the situation in the town of Qusra, south of Nablus, as a stark example of such practices.
Al-Raya added that Israeli occupation forces and settlers have continued to besiege three homes for the 13th consecutive day, amid shortages of food and medicine, underscoring the scale of the suffering endured by Palestinians under occupation.
Concluding its editorial, Al-Raya stressed the urgent need for serious and responsible international action to halt settlement expansion and settler violence, safeguard the rights of the Palestinian people, preserve the remaining prospects for peace, and save the two-state solution by ensuring the establishment of an independent Palestinian state along the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.