RAMALLAH, Wednesday, February 19, 2020 (WAFA0 – The Palestinian Foreign Ministry said today that the new Israeli settlement plan in northern Jerusalem was a result of the American greenlight that came in its so-called deal of the century.

"The world must realize that the occupying power is proceeding to resolve final status negotiations issues based on the unilateral American recipe and by force of the occupation away from any negotiations, peace conferences, or international positions and resolutions,” said the ministry in a statement. “The settlement expansion north of Jerusalem is evidence of the failure of the international community to achieve peace based on the two-state solution, United Nations resolutions and international references."

It said Israel is taking advantage of the American “deal of the century”, which it described as “the mockery of the century”, to bolster its occupation through its settlement activities in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

It said the new Israeli plan to build 9000 housing in the new settlement planned where the Jerusalem airport was located in the north of occupied Jerusalem means grabbing 1200 dunums of Palestinian land and demolishing dozens of inhabited Palestinian buildings thus displacing hundreds of people, in addition to isolating Jerusalem from its Palestinian environs to the north and creating a huge settlement complex that would kill any chance of having a viable and contiguous Palestinian state.

M.K.