Palestine threatens to sue Israel at ICC for settlements

The Palestinian Authority (PA) has threatened to take legal action against Israel at the International Criminal Court (ICC) if the Tel Aviv regime builds new settler units on the occupied Palestinian land.

PA Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki made the remarks at a press conference after a meeting of the United Nations Security Council in New York on Wednesday.

Israel is planning to build new settler units in a Palestinian area called E1 outside the suburbs of East al-Quds (Jerusalem).

“If Israel would like to go further by implementing the E1 (settlement) plan and the other related plans around Jerusalem … we will be going to the ICC … We have no other choice. It depends on the Israeli decision,” the Palestinian foreign minister stated.

The presence and continued expansion of Israeli settlements in occupied Palestine has created a major obstacle for the efforts to establish peace in the Middle East.

More than half a million Israelis live in over 120 illegal settlements built since Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East al-Quds in 1967.

The UN and most countries regard the Israeli settlements as illegal because the territories were captured by Israel in a war in 1967 and are hence subject to the Geneva Conventions, which forbids construction on occupied lands.