We asked Egypt for support in raising Israeli settlement construction with the UN, claims Erekat

The secretary general of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation has revealed that the Palestinians asked Egypt to call for a meeting of the Arab Quartet in order to submit a draft resolution to the UN Security Council against Israeli settlement activity in the occupied Palestinian territories. Saeb Erekat made his comments in a press release on Sunday, wherein he also commented on the announcement by Israel of a new plan to build hundreds of additional settlement housing units in occupied Jerusalem.

The Palestinian leadership, he insisted, will continue to confront “the occupation’s projects through all possible means, until the end of the occupation and the creation of the Palestinian state along the 1967 borders, with Jerusalem as its capital.”

Erekat condemned the latest Israeli plans for an additional 770 housing units in the illegal Gilo settlement, which will have a total of 1,200 new units when the latest project is completed. He described this as a war crime within the context of Israel’s continuous aggression against the Palestinians. The veteran negotiator accused Israel of having a policy for the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people and seeking to dismantle the Palestinian nation and its geographic unity.

“The occupation government’s decision to continue with illegal settlement construction is a message to the international community and a reminder of its inability to deter and hold Israel to account for its systematic violations,” said the PLO chief. He lamented Israel’s “arrogance” in the face of international law and political will. “The international community,” Erekat concluded, “should now demonstrate that it has the will to confront these violations in practical terms.”