The Civil Administration also retroactively legalized 178 units constructed illegally during the 1980’s in the Ofarim settlement, located north of Ramallah, while dropping two other projects which would have seen close to 80 units built in two other West Bank settlements.
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He also said Israel has undertaken a land survey on the outskirts of Bethlehem for the establishment of a new settlement in a move that would contribute to the “dismemberment of the southern West Bank”. He compared those unauthorized structures on isolated West Bank hilltops with Jewish neighborhoods of east Jerusalem.
But Mladenov, the United Nations coordinator for the Middle East peace process, acknowledged that the appeal had fallen on deaf ears.
The Security Council declared Israeli settlements in occupied territory to be illegal in a resolution adopted in 1979.
“The UN envoy to the Middle East’s remarks to the Security Council distort history and worldwide law and push peace farther away”.
“Jews have been in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria for thousands of years and their presence there is not an obstacle to peace”, Keyes said in a statement, using the biblical names for the West Bank.
“The obstacle to peace is the unending attempt to deny the Jewish People’s connection to parts of their historic land and the obdurate refusal to recognize that they are not foreigners there”.
David Keyes, spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said the comments “distort history”.
The exchange reflects the growing chasm between the worldwide community and Israel’s government over the status of the West Bank.
In a much-awaited report, the Quartet – the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations – had urged Israel to stop building settlements and called on the Palestinians to cease incitement to violence.
Another Palestinian accused over the attack, Mohamed Fakih, 29, was killed during a raid in July that saw Israeli forces fire anti-tank missiles at a house in the West Bank village of Surif.
“We need actions more than statements, ” Husam Zomlot said in an emailed comment.
In a briefing to the UN Security Council on Tuesday, Mideast envoy Nicolay Mladenov called Israeli building on land conquered in the 1967 war, colloquially “settlements”, the primary obstacle to peace between Israel and the Palestinians, who claim the land for their future state.
The Civil Administration is the Israeli agency that oversees services for residents of the occupied West Bank.
Israel “continues to plan and build all over the West Bank, while also giving settlers the message that any construction done without planning will be retroactively legalized”, settlement watchdog Peace Now said.
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Some 200,000 Israelis live in east Jerusalem.
