Israel bid to build new settler units sabotages peace process: Erekat

A high-ranking Palestinian official says Israeli plans to build nearly 300 new illegal settler units in the occupied West Bank indicates that Israel is trying to undermine efforts to revive the so-called peace talks.

“We condemn this new decision which is proof that the Israeli regime wants to sabotage and ruin efforts to revive the peace process,” chief Palestinian Authority negotiator, Saeb Erekat, said on Thursday.

He added, “This is a blow to the peace process…. This aims to drag the region into violence instead of peace and stability.”

His remarks came shortly after the Israeli Ministry of Military Affairs gave the green light for the construction of 296 housing units at Beit El settlement near Ramallah.

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

Israel agreed to freeze settlement construction under the Roadmap for Peace plan in 2002.

But it has failed to fulfill that commitment despite repeated and widespread international condemnation.

Not only has the presence and continued expansion of these settlements been a major source of international criticism against Israel, but they are also considered one of the main obstacles to Middle East peace.

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