JERICHO, July 25, 2012 (WAFA) – Upgrading the status of Palestine in the United Nations from an observer to a non-member state does not contradict the peace process or the principle of the two-state solution, said chief negotiator Saeb Erekat in a statement received from his office on Wednesday.

Erekat said after meeting separately with a number of foreign diplomats that upgrading Palestine’s status at the UN forms a “real focal point to protect the two-state solution.”

He stressed that the ongoing Israeli settlement activities, especially in East Jerusalem, its refusal to accept the 1967 borders or to release Palestinian prisoners and detainees, especially those arrested before 1994, have derailed the peace process.

Erekat called on the international community to hold the Israeli government accountable for its actions and stop treating Israel as a state above the law.

R.Q./M.S.