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Palestinians on Thursday said that they would appeal to the UN regarding Israeli plans to build 1,500 new settler homes. Israel had announced their plans as a response to the newly formed unity government in Hamas. The government of technocrats has been recognized by both the US and the EU, but Israel has promised to boycott what it calls a “government of terror”.
The tenders for the settler homes were unveiled by the Israeli Housing Ministry only 48 hours after the new Palestinian government was sworn in, ending the enmity between the rival administrations in Gaza and the West Bank.
Israel’s decision has been met with a furious reaction from Palestinians, who have pledged to appeal to the UN Security Council for the first time in three years regarding anti-settlement resolution. Out of the 1,500 new settlement houses, 400 of them will be in the annexed territory of East Jerusalem, while the rest of them will be in the occupied West Bank.
According to Israeli Housing Minister Uri Ariel, “I welcome the decision to give a fitting Zionist response to the establishment of the Palestinian government of terror”. He also described their plans as “just the beginning”.
According to Hanan Ashrawi, member of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), the Palestinian leadership will seek UN intervention regarding Israel’s settlement expansion drive. “The executive committee of the PLO views this latest escalation with the utmost of seriousness and will counter it by addressing both the U.N. Security Council and the General Assembly as the proper way of curbing this grave violation and ensuring accountability”, Ashrawi said.
The PLO had in February 2011 sought UN intervention regarding the settlements, but the move was blocked by a US veto vote. The option of legal action was opened up in the International Criminal Court after Palestine won observer status in the UN in 2012. However, they had agreed not to take such action until their US-brokered peace talks with Israel collapsed.