United Nations chief concerned by West Bank land expropriation

The report stressed that such businesses play a critical role in establishing and expanding settlements and encourage the Israeli authorities’ unlawful confiscation of Palestinian land and other resources.

It did not provide further details, including who was considered the current owner.

The land, near the northern tip of the Dead Sea, is in an area controlled by the Israeli military and already used by settlers to farm dates.

Israel has approved expropriation of 380 acres of West Bank agricultural lands south of the Palestinian city of Jericho, Israel’s Army Radio reported Wednesday.

But he also criticized Israel for not doing enough to put an end to “unchecked vigilantism” by Jewish extremists in the West Bank.

The EU is Israel’s largest trading partner, taking nearly a third of all Israeli exports in 2014 according to EU figures, but Israel claimed that the decision to label settlement products was motivated by campaigns to boycott Israeli businesses.

“The Secretary-General reiterates his call for substantial policy changes on the ground by Israel that will improve the lives of Palestinians”, the United Nations statement said.

“If you go between here and 70 kilometers (45 miles) straight you will see nothing but farms of grapes, palm trees, vegetables, stealing the water from Palestinians, the land from Palestinians”, said Erekat.

“The more settlers feel vulnerable to such brutal attacks, their influential leaders would increase their pressure on the government to more sharply separate Palestinians from settlers”, Ofer Zalzberg of the International Crisis Group think tank said.

The Arab Joint List party attacked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a statement on Saturday, over his condemnation of Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom after she called for an investigation of Israel for “executing” Arab terrorists in the act of attacking.

According to data published by HRW, over half a million Israelis live in settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. “Again, the question we ask is a simple one: What is Israel’s strategy?”

In Monday’s statement, foreign ministers reiterated that the settlements were “illegal under worldwide law, constitute an obstacle to peace and threaten to make a two state solution impossible”.

The European Foreign Ministers ruled at their monthly council meeting Monday that all agreements between the EU and Israel must “unequivocally and explicitly indicate their inapplicability to the territories occupied by Israel in 1967”.