Saeb Erekat, secretary general of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation (PLO), slammed Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s settlement announcement as a message sent by Netanyahu to the international community that Israel could not care less about statements.
Regarding the statement that was passed unanimously on Monday by the UN Security Council to refrain from undermining viability of two-state solution, Erekat said: “We have welcomed their positions by calling upon them to call for an international peace conference, yet we have reiterated our calls for concrete measures to be taken in order to save the prospects of a just and lasting peace, based on international law.”
Today the Israeli PM made new announcements for the expansion of Israel’s illegal colonial-settlement enterprise, including not only the northern Bethlehem area but the eastern part of Jerusalem with the so called “E-1 project”, which aims at linking the illegal colonial settlement of Ma’aleh Adumin with occupied East Jerusalem. “This project that has been frozen by the action of the international community today is being relaunched as encouraged by the Trump Administration,” said Erekat in a statement.
Israel is implementing on the ground the vision agreed between the Israeli and US teams that violate international law and aims at burying the prospects of a negotiated solution based on the two states, Israel and Palestine, on the 1967 border with East Jerusalem as Palestine’s capital, living in peace and security.
“We reiterate our call to impose sanctions and to hold Israel accountable for its systematic and ongoing violations of international law that threaten regional peace and security and deny the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people,” said Erekat.
Erakat added: “Those countries that reaffirmed their support to the two state solution should not hinder the Palestinian legal steps in the international forums that seek to protect the Palestinian rights including in the ICC which we call upon to expedite the opening of the investigation in war crimes committed in Palestine.”
