Palestine Slams Israeli Plan for New Settlement Units, Holds US President Responsible for "Israeli Arrogance"

Rasa - The Palestinian foreign ministry denounced a new Israeli settlement construction plan, which includes the building of 300,000 housing units in occupied East Jerusalem.

News ID: 435491

Date: 25 December 2017 - 21:56

RNA - In a statement on its Facebook page, the ministry on Sunday held US President Donald Trump responsible for "Israeli arrogance" that has endorsed the annexation of East Jerusalem, Al-Jazeera reported.

"The ministry affirms that this Israeli colonial arrogance would not have happened without US President Donald Trump's decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital," the statement read.

"Trump's administration must bear the responsibility for new crimes that Israel, the occupying country, imposes on our people," it added.

The ministry urged the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court to confront the move.

About 600,000 Israelis live in over 230 illegal settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East Jerusalem al-Quds.

Palestinians want the West Bank as part of a future independent state, with East Jerusalem al-Quds as its capital.

The separation wall, which Israel started building in 2002, snakes through the occupied West Bank's territory, dividing villages, encircling towns and splitting families from each other.

A UN Security Council resolution passed last year condemned all Israeli settlement construction on the occupied Palestinian territories. The landmark Resolution 2334, passed in December 2016, called the Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem al-Quds a “flagrant violation of international law.” The resolution also called on Israel to stop all such construction.

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