Dr. Erekat on Ma’ale Hazetim settlement: “The Israeli government is implementing its vision for the destruction of a two-state solution presented by Prime Minister Netanyahu to the American Congress”

Member of the PLO Executive Committee and Chief Palestinian Negotiator Dr. Saeb Erekat strongly condemned the inauguration of an Israeli settlement in occupied East Jerusalem by several high Israeli officials, including Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin, Nir Barakat, Education Minister Gideon Sa'ar, Environmental Protection Minister Gilad Erdan, Interior Minister Eli Yishai, and Information Minister Daniel Hershkovitz.

“The Israeli government is implementing its vision for the destruction of a two-state solution presented by Prime Minister Netanyahu to the American Congress. This settlement is not only another obstacle to returning to negotiations, but it also raises tensions, institutionalizes discrimination, and brings those with extremist beliefs in close proximity to Palestinian residential areas,” said Dr. Erekat. He asserts that Israel’s action in implanting settlers in Palestinian neighborhoods is an attempt to destroy the social fabric of Palestine. “What it has done in places such as Hebron, Silwan and Sheikh Jarrah has broken families apart, terrified children, and left people homeless.”

The illegal settlement of Ma’ale Hazetim, located in Ras al Amoud – the Mount of Olives area, is located in the heart of a highly populated Palestinian neighborhood in occupied East Jerusalem. It is also part of a ring of small settlements constructed in Palestinian neighborhoods such as Silwan, Issawiya, At Tur and Sheikh Jarrah in order to separate the Old City from the rest of occupied East Jerusalem.

Dr. Erekat called on the international community to recognize the Palestinian state on the 1967 border which will recognize Israel’s ongoing settlement enterprise as illegal and illegitimate. “Every new housing unit built in Israeli settlements is a new obstacle to reaching a peace with Israel. The international community must act so that Israel will understand that the creation of its facts on the ground can never make legal what is a war crime under international law. We call on all peace-loving countries that have not recognized the Palestinian state on the 1967 border to do so now.”