A senior Palestinian official has censured Israel for its latest decision to build 500 new illegal settler units in East Jerusalem, terming the plan “a slap in the face” to the United States and the international community.
“With the situation in occupied al-Quds (Jerusalem) at boiling point, Israel’s latest settlement announcement is a slap in the face to [US Secretary of State John] Kerry, to the international community, to the Palestinian people, and to peace,” chief Palestinian Authority negotiator, Saeb Erekat, said in a statement late on Monday.
He added that the Israeli decision depicts that the Tel Aviv regime “chooses settlements over negotiations, colonization over the two-state solution, and apartheid over equality and coexistence.”
Meanwhile, senior Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) official, Wassel Abu Yusef, says the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority will submit a draft resolution to the UN Security Council later this month, calling for a date for an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands.
The Palestinians have emphasized that if Washington torpedoes the motion against Tel Aviv, they will seek membership of the International Criminal Court, where they will sue Israeli authorities over their war crimes in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Earlier on Monday, the Israeli Interior Ministry gave the go-ahead for new settler units to be built in the Ramat Shlomo settlement in East Jerusalem.
On October 27, Israel approved plans for the construction of 1,060 new settler units in East Jerusalem.
More than half a million Israelis live in over 120 settlements, built since Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank, including East al-Quds, in 1967.
Much of the international community considers the settlements illegal because the territories were captured by Israel in a war in 1967 and are thus subject to the Geneva Conventions, which forbid construction on occupied lands.
