Israel still violating UN settlement resolution, says

Palestinian News Netwok

26 September, 2017

Israel is violating UN Security Council resolution 2334 which considers Jewish settlements illegal,  UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East peace process,Nickolay Mladenov said on Monday.

Israel failed to “cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem,”  Mladenov told UNSC in a video conference over implementation of resolution 2334, of 2016, from June 30 to September 20 this year.

Since June 20, Israel’s illegal settlement activities continued at a high rate, a consistent pattern over the course of this year, Mladenov added, saying Israel concentrated Jewish settlements’ construction activities in occupied East Jerusalem, where plans were to build over 2,300 housing units in July 30, including in the Old City.

Mladenov also said the Israeli authorities evicted a Palestinian family from its house in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood. This family has been living in this house for over 50 years.

He noted that eviction proceedings were underway for some 180 Palestinian families in occupied East Jerusalem, of them over 60 families were in Sheikh Jarrah.

Mladenov, citing figures from the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian (OCHA), said Israeli authorities destroyed 334 Palestinian-owned properties in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, in 2017 which forced displacement of some 500 people.

In Area C of the occupied West Bank in August, three education facilities serving 175 children, were demolished or confiscated by the Israeli authorities who claimed the buildings lacked permits, which “are virtually impossible to Palestinians to obtain,” he said.

Mladenov also said Jewish settlers were illegally occupying Palestinian houses, as well as reinforcing existing separation and division in the West Bank city of Al-Khalil, or Hebron, where some 500 Israelis were living among some 40,000 Palestinians.

The UN considers all Jewish settlement activities to be illegal under international law and an impediment to peace. Resolution 2334 states that the international community will not recognize any changes to the 4 June 1967 lines, including with regard to Jerusalem, other than those agreed to by the parties themselves through negotiations. (end) bs.asf