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Palestine condemns U.S. private funding for settlements

Xinhua, December 9, 2015 Adjust font size:

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry on Tuesday condemned private U.S. donors' funding of Israeli settlements built on Palestinian lands, urging the U.S. government to prevent the funds from flowing in.

Israeli media outlets have recently reported that a network of tax-exempt nonprofit organization funneled more than 220 million U.S. dollars to West Bank settlements between 2009 and 2013.

These tax-deductible donations mean that "the U.S. government is incentivizing and indirectly supporting the Israeli settlement movement, even though it has been consistently opposed by every U.S. administration for the past 48 years," according to reports.

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry urged the U.S. government to be aware of these "shocking facts," after more than 50 such organizations have allocated hundreds of thousands of dollars for settlement buildings.

Jewish settlements on Palestinian soil are considered illegal under the international law, as they violate Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits the transfer of the occupying power's civilian population into occupied territory.

The settlements are one of the main conflicting issues between the Palestinians and Israel amid the freeze of the peace process after nine months of U.S.-brokered peace talks held in Amman in 2014.

The Palestinians said the United States should assume its moral and legal responsibilities, and monitor these settlement activities to prevent the funds from reaching associations that support settlements and committing "crimes" against the Palestinian people. Endit