'Draft resolution to go to UNSC in Jan.'

An Israeli settlement (file photo)

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/157971.html


Palestinians and Arabs will soon submit a draft resolution before the UN Security Council (UNSC) demanding a complete halt to all settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.

The draft resolution is due to come before the United Nations in January, when Bosnia takes the rotating presidency of the Security Council from the United States.

"We will go before the Security Council in the coming days to stop the Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territories, especially East al-Quds (Jerusalem), capital of the future Palestinian state, which is a red line for all Palestinians and Arabs," said Nabil Abu Rudeina, spokesman for the acting Palestinian Authority (PA) Chief Mahmoud Abbas.

"We will present a Palestinian and Arab resolution," he told AFP from Brazil, where he is accompanying Abbas on an official visit.

Direct talks between Israelis and the Palestinians, launched on September 2, broke down three weeks later after a 10-month Israeli moratorium on settlement building expired but Tel Aviv refused to renew it and continues the construction in the occupied West Bank and East al-Quds.

It was on Dec. 15 that the Arab League announced it would seek a Security Council resolution against Israel, ordering a total freeze to Jewish settlements.

It also called on the United States, which has vetoed resolutions against Israel in the past, not to obstruct such a move.

The US has said that it will oppose any resolution brought before the UNSC that calls on Israel to end settlement activity in the West Bank.

US State Department spokesman Mark Toner said last week that the US continued to oppose Israeli settlement activity, but also opposed bringing the issue to the UNSC.

Israel to raze 200 Palestinian homes in E Jerusalem

Source: PressTV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=117846§ionid=351020202


Israeli authorities plan to seal 200 Palestinians homes in East Jerusalem Al-Quds to counter what they call "discriminatory enforcement" against Israeli settlers.

The East Jerusalem Al-Quds Mayor Nir Barkat announced the decision after the State Prosecutor Moshe Lador criticized the municipality's refusal to carry out a Supreme Court order to seal the Jewish-owned Beit Yehonatan building in East Jerusalem Al-Quds.

The building, which houses Israeli settlers, was illegally built in the city's neighborhood of Silwan in 2004.

In a letter written to the prosecutor on Wednesday, Barkat agreed to implement the sealing order but added that he would also act to tear down 200 "illegal" Palestinian homes in the area.

"Although the sealing order, in light of the dozens of demolition orders which are not being enforced, constitutes, in my eyes, a selective and discriminatory enforcement, Jerusalem (Al-Quds) Municipality will act according to court orders and implement the sealing orders on Beit Yehonatan as well as other standing orders," Barkat wrote to Lador.

"The municipality will seal Beit Yehonatan and raze all of the illegal structures - more than 200 structures on which the court has issued demolition orders."

The mayor charged the court order came under the influence of "wrongful political intervention" which he said "may cause publicly elected officials to refrain from expressing an opinion on issues that have dire consequences."

The decision to raze Palestinian houses received condemnation from civil rights organizations and human rights groups in Israel.

The Ir Amim (City of Nations) organization denounced the move, saying Barkat was adopting a policy similar to the settlers' "price tag policy", by which settlers seek revenge by attacking Palestinians for every illegal outpost that is evacuated.

"We hope Barkat is considering the local and international significance of such an extreme act," the organization said in a statement.

The Peace Now Movement said that "the Jerusalem (Al-Quds) mayor has turned into a collaborator with Israel's most extreme right-wing organizations."

Palestinians Slam New Israeli Settlement Expansions

Source: PressTV

The Palestinian Authority has condemned Israel's move to build hundreds more housing units for settlers in the occupied East Jerusalem Al-Quds.

"The Palestinian Authority strongly condemns the new decision to build in East Jerusalem and wonders whether there is a freeze of settlement activity or an intensification of it," AFP quoted chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat as saying.

Erekat addressed the US president Barack Obama's administration, saying Washington "needs to realize that the policies of the Israeli government embody settlements and not peace and that their choice is settlements and not peace."

The Israeli media on Sunday said Tel Aviv invited tenders for the building of some 692 new housing units in three settlements in East Jerusalem Al-Quds, which Israel occupied during the 1967 six-day war and annexed later despite strong opposition from the international community.

The international community has repeatedly called for a permanent halt to all settlement activity in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem Al-Quds, which Palestinians demand as the capital of their promised state.

The new homes come despite Tel Aviv's recent gesture to Palestinians under breaking international pressure to freeze its illegal settlement activities and pave the way for the revival of Middle East peace talks.

In November, Israel announced a 10-month moratorium on building in the West Bank; which does not apply to public buildings and projects already underway, and also excludes East Jerusalem Al-Quds.

Earlier in the month, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's hawkish government approved 900 new housing units in another East Jerusalem Al-Quds settlement attracting further outrage among Palestinians and a rare criticism from even the United States and other Western allies.