LEICESTER, United Kingdom – A move to increase an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank by over 3,500 housing units has been called a “total disregard for Palestinian self-determination” by an English bishop.

Ma’ale Adumim is an urban Israeli settlement with over 36,000 residents located in the West Bank and named a city in 1991.

It is located just over 4 miles from Jerusalem, and if expanded it would threaten the unity of the West Bank in an independent State of Palestine.

On August 20, Israel’s Higher Planning Council gave final approval for 3,753 housing units for the settlement project in the occupied West Bank, including 3,401 in Ma’ale Adumim.

The project seeks to link settlements and separate the West Bank from East Jerusalem, which was declared a part of Israel after the Six Day War in 1967. The annexation of East Jerusalem has not been recognized by the international community.

The Bishops of the International Affairs department of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England Wales condemned the move Israeli officials and is appealing for the international community to assert pressure to stop further settlement expansion and settler violence.

“We condemn the decision of the Higher Planning Council that has given its final approval to thousands of new homes in the E1 area – a plan that Israel’s finance minister states will ‘bury the idea of a Palestinian state’ by splitting the West Bank in two,” said a statement by Bishop Nicholas Hudson, Chair of the Department for International Affairs, and Bishop Jim Curry, Lead Bishop for the Holy Land for the English and Welsh bishops.

The bishops were referring to a statement from Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich reported in The Times of Israel.

He said the construction plan was “historic” and a “significant step that practically erases the two-state delusion and consolidates the Jewish people’s hold on the heart of the Land of Israel.”

“The Palestinian state is being erased from the table not by slogans but by deeds. Every settlement, every neighborhood, every housing unit is another nail in the coffin of this dangerous idea,” Smotrich said.

A statement from the foreign ministry of the Palestinian Authority said the project to expand the Israeli-controlled area “fragments… geographic and demographic unity, entrenching the division of the occupied West Bank into isolated areas and cantons that are disconnected from one another, turning them into something akin to real prisons.”

The English bishops said the decision to expand the settlement was “illegal under international law, denies the Palestinian people their right to self-determination as enshrined in Article 1 of the UN Charter.”

“This total disregard for Palestinian self-determination blocks the path to a lasting peace in the region and threatens the safety and dignity of all communities in the Holy Land, not solely the Christians,” they added.

“We urge the UK Government and the international community to speak with one voice to oppose further settlement expansion and advocate for a Two-State Solution as the only viable option to bring security and peace to Israelis and Palestinians,” the statement said.

“We hold in our prayers all parties seeking a just and lasting peace between Israel and Palestine,” the bishops concluded.

A Muslim member of the British parliament, Shockat Adam, says the role of Christian leaders “Is extremely powerful.”

“The leadership of the Church addressing parliamentarians and legislations and world leaders is a really powerful avenue of making change,” he told Crux.

“I think there is a place where have got where people can occupy which doesn’t have a political agenda – possibly a commercial agenda – which gives it a very unique influencing point,” Adam said.

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