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21:07 GMT
UNITED NATIONS, June 14 (KUNA) -- Palestine on Friday complained to the
international community about the reported expansion of Israeli settlement
activities in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and urged the Security Council
to urgently respond.
"We reiterate our appeals to the international community, including the
Security Council, to act with urgency to uphold the law, to safeguard the
rights of the Palestinian people, and to salvage the waning hopes for peace,"
Palestinian Charge d'Affaires Feda Abdulhadi Nasser wrote in identical letters
to the Security Council President (UK) and Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
"The international community must firmly reject Israel's empty, offensive
pretexts and must be resolute in demanding a halt to all illegal Israeli
practices in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem,"
she said.
This, she added, must include an end to the settlement campaign, which is
gravely diminishing the viability of the two-State solution and sabotaging the
hopes for meaningful peace negotiations to be resumed to bring an end to this
tragic conflict.
"To remain permissive of settlement activities, regardless of the
manifestation, is to allow for the trampling of international law and the
destruction of the two-State solution, with far-reaching consequences for the
prospects for Palestinian-Israeli peace as well as for the region and for our
global community," she warned.
She also complained about the provocative statements by Israeli officials,
including the Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon, who in recent media
comments stated that "there will never be a Palestinian State" and suggested
Jordan as an alternative.
These provocations, she argued, reveal the "true nature and intentions of
the current (Israeli) Government, and which undermine the serious peace
efforts of US Secretary of State John Kerry and regional and international
partners."
Earlier in the day, Ban described as "worrisome" reports about continued
Israeli expansion of settlements and urged Israel to freeze such activities
which are in violation of international law. (end)
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