RAMALLAH, February 22, 2012 (WAFA) - PLO Executive Committee member Saeb Erekat Wednesday condemned an Israel government decision to build 500 housing units in the northern West Bank settlement of Shilo.

He told Voice of Palestine radio that the government of Israel has chosen settlement expansion over peace.

The French news agency, AFP, quoted an Israeli official saying that a planning and building council of the Israeli Civil Administration will approve the building of 500 housing units in Shilo, one of hundreds of illegal Israeli settlements built in the West Bank since its occupation in 1967.

Erekat said the government of Israel will be held fully responsible for failure of peace efforts along with several members of the Quartet who provide it with protection.

He stressed that it is time for the Quartet to stop the Israeli measures and stop dealing with Israel as a state above the law.

Meanwhile, Jewish settlers from Shvut Rachel, another illegal settlement built on land belonging to Palestinians from the village of Jalud, southeast of Nablus, began restoring about 200 depleted homes in the settlement in order to house them, according to Ghassan Douglas, who monitors settlement activities in the northern parts of the West Bank.

T.R./M.S.