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UN Funding Palestinian Construction in Israeli-Controlled Areas of West Bank
(Fox News) Ben Evansky - The UN is funding illegal infrastructure projects for Palestinians in areas where Israel exercises exclusive control, in violation of the Oslo Accords. Naomi Kahn, spokesperson for the Israeli NGO Regavim, said UN funding encourages "Palestinian intransigence, making a negotiated resolution of the conflict less and less likely, by circumventing the entire process of negotiation and compromise and creating a de facto Palestinian state, specifically in areas under Israeli jurisdiction." Israeli minister Tzachi Hanegbi said, "All Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria must be legal. This is why the Supreme Court of Israel ruled several times in the past that settlers on private land must move from their homes, sometimes after years of living there. The same principle must be applied when it comes to the illegal invasion of Palestinians to land in Area C." Eugene Kontorovich, director of the Center for the Middle East and International Law at George Mason University Law School, said, "When Israelis see the UN literally paying for Palestinian violations of existing peace agreements, they naturally conclude that signing any more such agreements would be a big mistake - the UN only considers them to bind Israel, and not the Palestinians." Israel's former ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, said, "Hundreds of millions of euros have been spent, and continue to be spent, to physically alter Israel's landscape. How would the United Nations react if an Israeli organization were to pump millions of euros into another member state for illegal infrastructure projects?"