PLO decides to head to UN Security Council against Israeli settlement expansion

The Executive Committee of Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) decided on Monday to head to the United Nations Security Council against Israeli settlements' expansion in the West Bank.

The PLO declaration was made Monday night in an official statement issued in the aftermath of a meeting held in Ramallah, chaired by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

"On the light of the frantic settlement's expansion in the West Bank and Jerusalem, the PLO will head to the Security Council to demand it to bear its responsibility to protect its resolutions and oblige Israel to abide by it," it said.

Over the past few weeks, Israel escalated its settlement building and expansion in the West Bank. In addition, the Israeli parliament had passed last week a bill that legalized settlements' construction and expansion.

"The PLO is activating all mechanisms to confront the Israeli settlement and this includes applying to the judiciary council of the International Criminal Court in The Hague to investigate Israeli officials immediately," said the PLO statement.

The statement called on the international community to help implementing the recent UN resolution 2334, which condemned Israeli settlement in the Palestinian territories and called for halting it.

Settlement is the thorny question that caused a freeze to the peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. Bilateral talks, sponsored by the United States, stopped in April 2014 after it lasted for nine months without achieving any progress. Endt