Ramallah: Defying the international community and seeking to destroy the two-state option, Israel yesterday approved a plan for 1,100 new illegal homes in the Occupied East Jerusalem colony neighbourhood of Gilo.
The plan was condemned by the Palestinians who accused Israel of rejecting a Quartet proposal for new peace talks. “With this, Israel is responding to the Quartet’s statement with 1,100 ‘no’s,” Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said.
The international peacemaking Quartet on Friday called on Israel and the Palestinians to return to the negotiating table within a month, with the goal of reaching a deal within a year. “We believe that Israel has today responded to the Quartet statement, which called for a halt to unilateral actions by both sides,” he said, adding Israel was effectively saying: “We have chosen settlements colonies instead of peace.”
Erekat said the approval should be a wake-up call for countries that have opposed the Palestinian bid for UN membership. “The only way to peace and the implementation of the two-state solution is to support the Palestinian attempt to obtain full membership” at the UN, he said.
The announcement of the colony expansion in Gilo is further proof that Israel is not serious about resuming peace talks, an official said. “Unless the Quartet proposal meets the Palestinian demand of halting colony construction, it is impossible to restart negotiations,” Wasel Abu Yousuf, a member of the PLO Executive Committee told Gulf News.
Meanwhile, Nigeria, which holds a rotating seat on the UN Security Council, officially said it would vote in favour of a Palestinian state, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Colombia is believed to be voting against, while other rotating countries Gabon and Bosnia have not made their position clear. So far only the US has made clear it would veto the statehood bid, while France and China have been giving conflicting statements.
US reaction
Israel's decision to build 1,100 settlement homes on West Bank land is counter-productive to reviving peace talks with the Palestinians, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Tuesday.
The decision appears to make it even less likely that the two sides will answer a call on Friday by the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States, collectively know as the Quartet, to resume peace talks within a month.
"We believe that this morning's announcement by the government of Israel approving the construction of (1,100) housing units in Occupied East Jerusalem is counter-productive to our efforts to resume direct negotiations between the parties," Clinton told reporters at a news conference.
"As you know, we have long urged both sides to avoid any kind of action which could undermine trust, including, and perhaps most particularly, in Occupied Jerusalem, any action that could be viewed as provocative by either side," she added.
- With inputs from agencies
