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Halt settlements or talks over, Abbas tells Israel

13 November 2013 04:20 (UTC +04:00)

On Tuesday, anti-settlement group Peace Now revealed that Israel’s Housing Ministry has planned to build a "record" 20,000 new settler homes in the occupied West Bank.

"If Israel does not go back on its latest construction plans for the settlements, that will spell a formal declaration of the end of the peace process," Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat quoted Abbas as saying later in the day.

Erakat added that Abbas has passed on his ultimatum to the Arab League and the Middle East Quartet -- the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States.

Earlier in the day, the US expressed deep concern over the report revealing that the Israel regime is planning to construct more illegal settlement units.

"We are deeply concerned by this latest report," said US State Department spokeswoman Jennifer Psaki.

"We were surprised by this announcement and are currently seeking further explanation from the government of Israel," she stated, adding that "we do not accept the legitimacy of continued settlement activity."

Palestinian and Israeli negotiators began a fresh round of talks in July.

Last Palestinian-Israeli talks had broken down in September 2010 after Tel Aviv refused to freeze its settlement activities in the occupied West Bank.

A senior PA authority official said last week that there will be no direct talks with Israel if it keeps on expanding illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.

"The Israeli side is determined to continue its settlement and we cannot continue negotiations under these unprecedented settlement attacks," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, following a meeting between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators.

Last month, a large number of Palestinians from different political movements took to the streets of the West Bank city of Ramallah to call on the PA to pull out from the talks with Israel.

Supporters of all Palestinian factions, including the Islamic resistance movement Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, gathered in central Arafat square to protest against the talks.

The protesters said the talks are useless and Abbas must withdraw from the negotiations.

They also demanded the PA take the regime in Tel Aviv to the International Criminal Court for its crimes against the people of Palestine.

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 United Nations 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.