The Palestinians condemn this apply as an encroachment on the restricted self-rule they maintain in elements of the West Bank.
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Nabil Abu Rdineh, an aide to Abbas said in an official statement that the Israeli government’s official declaration to build 300 housing units in the settlement of Ariel near Ramallah “is completely condemned”. They were built without permits on land owned by a Palestinian man that was seized for military use in the 1970s.
On Wednesday afternoon, clashes erupted between Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) and young Palestinians who entered the demolition site in Beit El settlement, since it is private Palestinian property stolen by Israel.
The police increased their presence at the compound after a video showing a Jewish woman insulting the Prophet Muhammad went viral, enraging Muslims in the city. Many of them were evacuated from their homes 10 years ago during the Gaza disengagement, which included four settlements in the northern West Bank.
Israeli demolition policy mainly aims at changing the geographic and demographic realities in occupied Jerusalem, he said.
Mr Ban reiterated that “settlements are illegal under worldwide law, an impediment to peace and can not be reconciled” with Israel’s “stated intention to pursue a two-state solution”, his spokesman said in a statement released in New York. Israel, by destroying Arab settlements on the West Bank, was undermining peace negotiations with Palestine.
The standoff escalated sharply on Wednesday, after the Israeli Supreme Court rejected a petition to overturn its initial ruling to demolish a complex in Beit El and ordered the destruction completed no later than Thursday.
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Interior Minister Silvan Shalom has defended the decision to remove homes in the 350-strong South Hebron Hills community, which is wedged between two Jewish settlements and where most families live in temporary shelters, surviving on sheep farming, bee-keeping and selling embroidered goods.
