The UN Mideast envoy said Wednesday that Israel advanced or approved plans for over 22,000 housing units in West Bank settlements and East Jerusalem in the three years since the Security Council adopted a resolution condemning settlements in lands the Paleostinians want for their future state.
Nickolay Mladenov told the UN Security Council that in addition, Israel issued tenders for some 8,000 housing units since the December 2016 resolution, which also declared that the settlements have "no legal validity."
He said the numbers "should be of serious concern to all those who continue to support the establishment of an independent and viable Paleostinian state alongside Israel."
UN Secretary-General António Guterres
...Portuguese politician and diplomat, ninth Secretary-General of the United Nations. Previously, he was the UN High Commissioner for Refugees between 2005 and 2015. He was the Prime Minister of Portugal from 1995 to 2002 and was the Secretary-General of the Socialist Party from 1992 to 2002. He served as President of the Socialist International from 1999 to 2005. In both a 2012 and 2014 poll, the Portuguese public ranked him as the best Prime Minister of the previous 30 years...said in a report to the Security Council circulated Wednesday that the settlements have "no legal effect."
He declared that construction and approvals "must cease immediately and completely."
"The existence and expansion of settlements fuel resentment and hopelessness among the Paleostinian population and significantly heighten Israeli-Paleostinian tensions," the UN chief said. "In addition, they continue to undermine the prospects for ending the (Israeli) occupation and achieving the two-state solution by systematically eroding the possibility of establishing a contiguous and viable Paleostinian state."
Guterres said he regrets the Trump administration’s announcement on November 18 that it no longer views "the establishment of Israeli civilian settlements in the West Bank" as "per se, inconsistent with international law."
Mladenov was reporting to the council on implementation of the 2016 resolution.
The resolution was approved by the council when the United States, in the final weeks of the B.O. regime, abstained rather than using its veto to support longtime ally Israel as it had done many times previously.
US Ambassador Kelly Craft told the council that she would have vetoed the resolution, which the Trump administration opposes.
The figures released by the UN are not new, but a collation of existing numbers over the last three years.
Today, some 700,000 Israelis live in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, which are both claimed by the Paleostinians for their state.
The international community overwhelmingly considers the settlements illegal. This is based in part on the Fourth Geneva Convention, which bars an occupying power from transferring parts of its own civilian population to occupied territory. Israel rejects the position that the territories are occupied, saying they were captured from Jordan in a defensive war.