AMMAN — The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Saturday condemned attacks by Israeli settlers on a European diplomatic delegation, including the Belgian Consul General and diplomats from France and Poland, alongside Palestinian farmers harvesting olives, Catholic Church representatives and journalists in the town of Taybeh, east of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.

 

The ministry held Israel, the occupying power, fully responsible for these assaults.

 

Ministry Spokesperson Fouad Majali reaffirmed the Kingdom’s absolute rejection and condemnation of such “terrorist” settler attacks, describing them as an extension of the extremist policies of the Israeli government, according to a Foreign Ministry statement.

 

Majali noted that these acts coincide with ongoing illegal Israeli measures in the occupied West Bank, which fuel extremism and violence against the Palestinian people while undermining prospects for achieving peace based on the two-state solution.

 

He urged the international community to uphold its legal and moral responsibilities by compelling Israel to halt settler terrorism and violence against Palestinians, diplomats, clergy and journalists.

 

The spokesperson stressed the need to hold perpetrators accountable, end impunity and fulfill the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, chief among which is the establishment of an independent, sovereign state on the June 4, 1967 lines, with East Jerusalem as its capital, as the sole path to a just and comprehensive peace that guarantees regional security and stability.

 

Belgium's foreign minister on Saturday condemned "in the strongest terms" an attack by Israeli settlers on a European diplomatic convoy in the occupied West Bank that left one French official injured and a Belgian car damaged, AFP reported.

 

"Impunity for violent settlers must end," the minister Maxime Prevot said on X. "This violence cannot be separated from Israel's illegal settlement policy. Belgium condemns settlement expansion and attempts to forcibly displace Palestinians from their land." He said the Belgian consul general was among those in the delegation.

 

A French mayor who was attacked Saturday by Israeli settlers in the West Bank told AFP that the incident showed a tolerance by Israel's right-wing government for settler violence.

 

"I think that if settlers are behaving like this, there is a tolerance on the part of the Israeli government," Bernard Baudoux, mayor of the northern French town of Aulnoye-Aymeries, said after he was attacked on a goodwill visit to the town of Taybeh.