RAMALLAH, July 30 (Xinhua) -- A senior Palestinian official on Tuesday rejected Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's proposal on Israeli settlements' expansion in the West Bank as "an attempt to steal the Palestinian lands."
According to Israeli media, Netanyahu earlier proposed that Israel would allow the Palestinian construction in Area (C) in the West Bank in exchange for the expansion of Israeli settlements in the area.
Under the interim Oslo Agreement signed between the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Israeli government in 1993, the West Bank was divided into three areas: Area (A) under Palestinian control, Area (B) under Palestinian and Israeli control and Area (C) under full Israeli control.
Azzam el-Ahmad, a member of the PLO Executive Committee, told the official radio station Voice of Palestine that Netanyahu's proposal attempts to "legalize the Israeli settlement."
"It's the natural Palestinian right to build on their land all over their homeland, including areas classified as Area (C), but Israel prevents building in this area under the pretext of security and administrative control," said el-Ahmad.
Netanyahu's proposal "contradicts the spirits of international laws which consider these territories as occupied by Israel," he added.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry said in a press statement that the Israeli government is treating Area (C) in the occupied West Bank as a strategic stock for its settlements.
The Israeli government is planning to turn all settlements in the West Bank into a geographical entity similar to a Jewish state for the settlers in the West Bank, the ministry statement warned.
