UN envoy: Israel ignoring demands to halt illegal settlement activity

Mladenov stressed that the UN considers Israel's settlement activities illegal under international law

2 min read

26 September, 2017

Israeli settlements [AFP]

Israel is refusing to comply with a UN Security Council resolution demanding a halt to all settlement activity, the UN Middle East envoy said, describing the continuing settlement expansion as something that is making a two-state solution "increasingly unattainable."

Nickolay Mladenov told the Security Council on Monday that in the three months from June 20 Israel's settlement activity "continued at a high rate, a consistent pattern over the course of this year."

He said activity was concentrated primarily in East Jerusalem where plans were advanced for over 2,300 housing units in July, "30 percent more than for the whole of 2016."

Mladenov stressed that the UN considers Israel's settlement activities illegal under international law.

He was delivering the third report on implementing last December's council resolution condemning Israeli settlements as a "flagrant violation" of international law.

Last week Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas declared he would "look for alternatives" if the two-state solution was in jeopardy.

Speaking at the UN General Assembly, Abbas, whose presidency expired in 2009 slammed Israel over the construction of new settlements "everywhere", adding they were putting the two-state solution in jeopardy.

Taking the podium a day after Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Abbas called for an end to the "apartheid" that he said Israel had imposed on the Palestinians.

"There is no place left for the state of Palestine and this is not acceptable," he said in a nearly 45 minute speech.