NEW YORK, October 12, 2017 (WAFA) – Palestine’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Riyad Mansour Wednesday urged the United Nations to demand from Israel to comply with international law and resolutions and stop building illegal settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
Mansour sent three identical letters to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, the President of the Security Council (France) and the President of the United Nations General Assembly on Israel‘s continued provocative statements and its plans to build and expand settlements throughout the occupied Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem, in direct and serious violation of international law and Security Council resolutions, including resolution 2334 (2016).
He said these violations come in defiance of the international community, increase tension and undermine any effort to salvage the two-state solution on the 1967 borders as well as threaten chances of peace.
He drew the attention of the United Nations to a press release issued on Tuesday by the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announcing his plans to build an additional 3736 settlement units throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, deep inside the city of Hebron and in Beit El settlement near Ramallah and in other vital areas.
Mansour briefed the United Nations on Israel‘s true and illegitimate intentions, which are revealed with every declaration to build more settlements, annex and colonize more Palestinian land and continue the military occupation that lasted half a century.
He said that despite the international consensus on a two-state solution based on the 1967 borders as the only viable solution to achieve just and comprehensive peace, Israel was pursuing its colonialist and inflammatory policies, which are in contradiction with this consensus and which constitutes gross violation of international law and flagrant violation of relevant United Nations resolutions.
He demanded that there should be strong and explicit condemnation of all such Israeli practices, provocations and incitement, stressing the need to pressure Israel to immediately and urgently halt its settlement activities and all other violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem.
Mansour said the international community should demand Israel‘s compliance with international law, including humanitarian law and human rights law, as well as all relevant UN resolutions, including resolution 2334 (2016), and be ready to hold it accountable for its acts if these violations continue.
He referred to the obligations set forth in resolution 2334 (2016), both in terms of the commitments of the occupying Power or the obligations of states and of the international community as a whole, to put an end to this illegal situation that is destroying the two-state solution and reaching a just, comprehensive and lasting peace.
“The time has come to stop dealing with Israel as a state above the law, where there is no state above the law, including Israel," Mansour concluded his letter.
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