Palestinian official urges int'l community to oblige Israel to freeze settlements

Secretary General of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Saeb Erekat sent letters to several foreign ministers on Sunday, urging them to intervene immediately and oblige Israel to halt its settlement construction.

In an emailed press release, he said "the illegal settlement construction engulfs Palestinian territories and undermines the two-state solution."

Erekat said the continued settlement construction "violates the international law, which does not allow the occupying power to take over or destroy public or private property," referring to the Israeli decision to confiscate 221 acres of land near Ramallah in the West Bank, despite the fact that the land is registered under its owners' names.

He said the month of July witnessed the highest surge in settlement construction thus far, which was announced by Jerusalem municipality.

"Extremist Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu maintains these illegal policies and plans right before the international community," said the statement.

The statement called on the international community to assume its ethical responsibility towards the inalienable rights of Palestinians, and respond, instead of issuing condemnation statements, by holding Israel accountable.

The PLO secretary general called on foreign ministers to boycott all organizations and companies complying with Israel's occupation and settlement expansion, and to ban the export of Israeli settlement products.

The settlement issue is one of the main reasons for halting the direct peace negotiations that were sponsored by the United States for nine months and ended in April 2014. Endit