Hanan Ashrawi
Hanan AshrawiMiriam Alster/Flash 90

Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the PLO Executive Committee, on Wednesday called on the international community not to allow Israel to take advantage of the global health and economic crises to "annex Palestinian occupied territories," as she put it.

In a statement, Ashrawi said that "Israel is taking advantage of the spread of the coronavirus to accelerate the process of annexing territories in Judea and Samaria and provide protection for the armed extremist settlers to continue their 'terror' against the 'helpless' Palestinian people."

Ashrawi was referring to Defense Minister Naftali Bennett's announcement on the beginning of the planning of the "Road of Sovereignty" project that will connect Jerusalem to Ma'aleh Adumim and also to the planned construction in E1.

"The activity of the settlers against the Palestinians has escalated following the coronavirus outbreak in Bethlehem, which required large-scale preventive measures, while at the same time, the settlers uprooted 1,200 trees in the Bethlehem area, attempted to kidnap two minors in the village of Turmus Ayya, attacked Palestinians in Huwwara and Burin, and broke into the Al-Tira neighborhood of Ramallah,” she charged.