Today (Saturday), Secretary-General of the Arab League, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, condemned in the strongest terms the decisions taken by the Israeli Council of Ministers to withdraw the powers of the Palestinian Authority in Area B of the West Bank, punish some Authority officials by restricting their movements, and launch Israeli settlement construction in various areas of the West Bank.

Aboul Gheit considered in a statement that "all of these decisions represent a complete and final reversal of the Oslo Accords, a return of the entire situation to before point zero, and a consolidation of the logic of crude occupation."

Gamal Rushdi, the official spokesman for the Secretary-General, said that Aboul Gheit called on the international community to see the Israeli government for what it is, as a racist, right-wing government that is not interested in peace, and seeks to dismantle any semblance of the Palestinian Authority, consolidate the reality of occupation in all areas of the West Bank, and remove any control that the Palestinians exercise over their lives, including This includes Area B, which according to the Oslo Accords is subject to Palestinian civilian control.

The official spokesman explained that the recent decisions reflect the Israeli government’s complete submission to the extreme right represented by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, and that they aim to embarrass and even insult the international community, which has shown an opposite trend towards expanding recognition of the Palestinian state, stressing that such decisions and measures further inflame the situation in the West Bank. The West, turning back the clock to before the Oslo Accords, seeks to subject the Palestinians under a direct occupation regime that can only be described as apartheid.

Last Thursday, the Israeli mini-cabinet for political and security affairs approved Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s plan to address recognitions of a Palestinian state and the measures taken against Israel in international courts, according to what was published by the Hebrew Public Radio.

The Hebrew radio said that according to the plan presented by Smotrich, measures will be taken against the Palestinian Authority, five settlement outposts in the West Bank will be legalized, and bids will be published to build thousands of housing units in the settlements.

The plan also states that “measures to confront the Palestinian Authority will include canceling various permits and benefits for senior officials in the Palestinian Authority, restricting movement and preventing senior officials from leaving the country, and punishing them for committing incitement violations.”
In addition, it concerns "the removal of senior Palestinian officials, and the withdrawal of executive powers from the Palestinian Authority in the southern West Bank."
Israel occupied the West Bank in 1967 and established settlements there, which are considered a violation of international law. The settlement issue is the most prominent aspect of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and one of the main reasons for the halt of the last peace negotiations between the two sides before mid-2014.
Since last October 7, Israel has been waging a large-scale war against the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in the Gaza Strip under the name “Iron Swords,” which has led to the death of more than 37,000 people and major destruction of homes and infrastructure.
The war came after Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on southern Israel, which it called the “Al-Aqsa Flood,” which claimed the lives of more than 1,200 Israelis and took hostages, according to the Israeli authorities.