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Israeli plans to build new settler homes in east Jerusalem is likely to escalate into needless violence, a senior Palestinian official warned on Monday.
“Such unilateral acts will lead to an explosion”, Jibril Rajoub, a senior member in Fatah, said at a press conference in Ramallah.
Rajoub said that such a move might further inflame tensions in the city, which has seen clashes almost every day in the past few months.
An Israeli official at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office earlier confirmed plans for 1,000 new homes in the pre-dominantly Arab neighborhoods of Ramat Shlomo and Har Homa of east Jerusalem.
Nabil Abu Rudeina, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, slammed the plans, calling the move a “dangerous escalation” which could have the potential to create an “earthquake” in the region.
Saeb Erakat, chief Palestinian negotiator, said that new plans will push the Palestinian leadership to “speed up” their plans to approach the Security Council for membership in the International Criminal Court (ICC).
“Everything Netanyahu’s government is doing are war crimes which must be tried according to international law”, Erakat said, calling on the US to “rethink its biased position”. He also urged the US “not to oppose” a Palestinian application in the Security Council calling for the expulsion of Israelis from the occupied territories.
Should the initiative be stymied by the US with a widely-expected veto, the Palestinians have promised to sue Israeli officials at the ICC for war crimes; move which Rajoub has said could come “within a matter of weeks”.
“We will not give in to any pressure — neither American pressure nor to Mr. Netanyahu’s threats. We will go to the ICC. We have already made our mind up. If hope is diminishing of coming up with a (Security Council) resolution, then we have no other choice”, Rajoub said.