Palestinians turn to UN to curb settlements

Palestinian leaders have decided to seek a UN Security Council meeting on the issue of Israeli settlement building, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said on Wednesday.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Erakat said.

“The Palestinian leadership has decided, in light of the Israeli settlement decisions and large-scale settlement plans, particularly in east Jerusalem to go urgently to the Security Council to stop these settlement plans, which aim to prevent the implementation of the two-state solution,” Erakat told AP.

“We took the decision to begin preparing a Security Council resolution to stop these practices,” he added.

Israeli construction of settlements in east Jerusalem and the West Bank remains one of the thorniest issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, scuppering direct negotiations between the sides that began in September 2010 and ground to a halt shortly afterwards when a 10-month Israeli settlement freeze ended.

Israel declined to renew the freeze and the Palestinians say they will not hold talks while settlement construction continues.

Efforts by the international peacemaking Quartet, composed of the United States, United Nations, European Union and Russia, to bring the parties back to the table have so far failed.

The Palestinians say they remain committed to seeking UN membership, despite US and Israeli opposition.

The Palestinians have sought UN censure over settlements before, most recently in February when the United States vetoed a Security Council resolution condemning Israeli construction in the occupied territory.