The Palestinian Foreign Ministry said Monday that the Israeli government is turning a blind eye to peace efforts through stepping up settlement construction on occupied Palestinian lands and called for international intervention.
In a statement, the ministry condemned “ongoing settlement crimes and grabs of Palestinian-owned property to fatten and expand existing settlements and build more settler outposts.”
It also decried Jewish settlers for setting up a new outpost northwest of Jericho in the occupied West Bank and seizing and fencing off large nearby properties, as well as constructing a new settlement road west of Bethlehem.
It said that successive Israeli governments had persisted in annexing the occupied West Bank through settlement construction within the sight and hearing of the world, and demanded international action and not to turn a blind eye on Israel, the occupying power, in its attempts to impose new facts on the ground to ward off the establishment of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.
The ministry said it was following up on settlement crimes with the International Criminal Court and UN bodies, the Human Rights Council and world leaders and officials so that the world community assumes its legal and moral responsibility to implement international resolutions, notably UN resolution 2334.
In the latest breaches, Israeli occupation authorities handed orders for the demolition of eight Palestinian homes, some inhabited and others are under construction, a mosque and a facility in Nahalin village, west of Bethlehem.
In occupied East Jerusalem, Israeli municipal authorities issued a notification for the demolition of a mosque under construction in the village of Issawiyeh.
SOURCE: JORDAN NEWS AGENCY