Pan-Islamic grouping to hold emergency meeting Thursday to discuss ‘invalid’ Israeli decisions in West Bank

By Muhammed Ata

ISTANBUL (AA) – The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) will hold an emergency meeting of its foreign ministers on Thursday to address Israel’s decisions to expand illegal settlements and pursue annexation of the occupied West Bank.

The Jeddah meeting comes at the request of Palestine “to coordinate positions and discuss ways of action to confront these invalid decisions” and measures aimed at “changing the legal, political and demographic status of Palestinian territory and undermining the two-state solution,” the organization’s General Secretariat said in a statement.

On Feb. 15, the Israeli government approved a proposal to register large areas in the West Bank as “state property,” for the first time since Israel occupied the territory in 1967.

According to Israeli media, the measure includes opening previously frozen land registration procedures, cancelling old Jordanian legislation banning the sale of land to Jews, and disclosing land records that had remained confidential for decades.

Palestinians warn that Israel’s actions pave the way for a formal annexation of the occupied West Bank, which they say would end prospects for a Palestinian state envisioned in United Nations resolutions.

*Writing by Lina Altawell