Palestinians condemn Israeli settlement plans

Updated 4:15 a.m. ET

UNITED NATIONSPalestinians are condemning Israel for announcing plans for new settlement construction immediately after the U.N. upgraded the status of a state of Palestine, and are demanding urgent international action to stop what they called "this latest Israeli provocation."

They are also threatening to bring war crimes charges against the Jewish state.

Palestinian envoy Riyad Mansour said in letters sent late Monday to the U.N. secretary-general, Security Council and General Assembly that, at the same time that Palestinian leaders reaffirmed their readiness to resume peace negotiations, "Israel continues to flagrantly pursue its illegal policies and practices."

He appealed to the international community, including the U.N. Security Council, to act urgently to salvage the internationally-backed goal of two states living side-by-side in peace, which was reaffirmed in last Thursday's General Assembly resolution raising the Palestinians' U.N. status to a nonmember observer state.

A senior Palestinian official warned Monday that the West Bank government would pursue war crime charges against Israel if it doesn't stop settlement construction.

Nabil Shaath said late Monday that "many countries" have urged the Palestinian Authority not to use its new status to seek war crimes charges against Israel at the International Criminal Court, a U.N. body.

Shaath says, "By continuing these war crimes of settlement activities" on occupied territories, Israel is "pushing and forcing us to go to the ICC."

Earlier Monday, Israel's decision to approve 3,000 new homes on occupied territory drew sharp condemnation from European allies, with at least three governments summoning ambassadors to express their disapproval of an action they say undermines an already-troubled peace process.

The Israeli envoy to Paris was called to a meeting late Monday morning, according to a statement from the French foreign ministry spokesman, Philippe Lalliot. France, which was the first major European country to announce support for the Palestinian effort to win recognition at the U.N., also sent a letter to the Israeli government, calling the settlement decision "a considerable obstacle to the two-state solution, by compromising the territorial integrity of a future Palestinian state."

Britain and Sweden also summoned the Israeli ambassadors, and Germany said the decision would hurt Israel's ability to negotiate a long-term peace agreement.

None of the European governments openly threatened any concrete measures to punish Israel.

Britain denied a report in the Haaretz newspaper that London and Paris were considering recalling their ambassadors for consultation in a symbolic but potent expression of dissent.

British foreign officials told CBS News Monday that "the contents of this article are pure speculation."

France's foreign ministry also denied that it was considering recalling its ambassadors, saying, "We have other ways to show our disapproval."

• U.S. struggles to get Israel, Palestinians to talks
• Israel approves new West Bank settlement construction day after U.N. vote
• Palestinian vote at U.N. brings recognition, but is far cry from statehood
• Israel going ahead with expansion in warning to Palestinian statehood bid

Nevertheless senior Palestinian official Nabil Shaath praised the Europeans for taking action.

"We've been expecting this kind of behavior for a long time," Shaath said. "For this to come from France and England is very beneficial to us. We highly appreciate it and we are hoping the U.S. will follow their lead."

The United Nations General Assembly last week overwhelmingly endorsed an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, territories Israel captured in the 1967 war. The vote amounted to an international condemnation of Israeli settlements in the areas claimed by the Palestinians.

The following day, Israel defiantly said it would start drawing up plans to build thousands of settlement homes, including the first-ever development on a crucial corridor east of Jerusalem that would allow a contiguous Palestinian state.

Britain, which abstained in the U.N. vote, called on Israel to reverse the decision as it summoned Israel's ambassador Daniel Taub to the Foreign Office.

On Saturday Foreign Secretary William Hague called Israeli settlements illegal under international law, and said the approved new building "would undermine Israel's international reputation and create doubts about its stated commitment to achieving peace with the Palestinians.

"The U.K. strongly advises the Israeli government to reverse this decision," Hague said.

Germany, which also abstained, expressed its concern on Monday but declined to say whether it had taken any direct measures in response. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is due in Berlin on Wednesday for talks scheduled well ahead of the U.N. vote and a dinner with Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Steffen Seibert, Merkel's spokesman, said Germany took a "very negative view" of the settlement announcement, which he said undermined Israel's negotiations for a peace agreement with the Palestinians.

[verifabletruthmatters]

Israel has had more than 60 years to prove itself. It's the same religious war the Rabbis started in 1850 to steal back Palestine ignorantly believing Palestine to be the Promised Land. They willingly reduce a Consciousness aligned with 100 BIL galaxies headed to Infinity, to a moron who cares about real estate in the Mideast, on a speck of dust called Earth. There are 1400 planets in the "habitable zone" of their star like our Sun, and 33 of them are the same size as Earth. In other words, there's nothing special about Earth, except that the human species is doing a great job failing the real Program. "Take basic Understandings, Kindergarten material like the TEN COMMANDMENTS, and raise them to the level of the Universal LAWS that govern God's World", to reach an Awareness Level known as THE PROMISED LAND". The message for centuries has been to stop violating the LAWS, because Physics doesn't tolerate being violated. It's the cause of every accident and virtually every tragedy on the planet. EVERYTHING has to be translated to a function of Energy governed by Physics. Teachers who know what they're doing don't leave behind TEACHINGS that are a violation of the Universal LAWS that govern God's World. Fundamentalists are HUGE VIOLATORS of verifiable TRUTH, therefore HUGE VIOLATORS of the associated Universal LAWS that govern the Universe, therefore HUGE VIOLATORS of God's World.

Which is exactly where we find 6 million genocidal Jews in a nation of hypocrites called Israel, pushing a pack of bogus and violating religious ignorance, easily disproved. They ignorantly believe they can force the SECOND COMING by stealing back a piece of real estate, when they've spent centuries butchering the TEN COMMANDMENTS. They ignorantly believe they are "A CHOSEN PEOPLE" when Physics is running the show & it doesn't play favorites. A Consciousness aligned with 100 BILLION galaxies going to Infinity isn't going to violate the Physics running the show. The Consciousness that was Jesus, left the area around Jerusalem and spent 17 years studying under THE MASTERS in Tibet, where he left behind TEACHINGS on Reincarnation that have been stripped from the 100 versions of a very adulterated, highly politicized book, called the Bible. The current texts read nothing like the original documents, which in the case of the New Testament are 300 years old. Until humans are willing to translate the most original documents of any Sacred Text to a function of Energy governed by Physics, they're not going to have a clue what the TEACHER was trying to say. Jesus spent the last 300 years traveling among the Indians of North and South America leaving behind the same TEACHINGS as he did in the Mideast. If... there was going to be such a thing as "A CHOSEN PEOPLE" the title would go to the Indians, then to the people of Tibet, NOT the Jewish People.

Pro-Israeli, Jewish, Judge Goldstone chose 3 dozen war crimes out of 3600 atrocities committed by Israel in Jan 2009, which were released in the Goldstone Report, because he has a long history of investigating war crimes in Rwanda, Cosovo, Africa, etc.(Bill Moyers Journal 10-23-09) We have Separation of Church & State in the US because religions have a long history of destroying, causing most wars, and being incessant about pushing their violating ignorance. Which is all that Israel is--scheming, manipulating, lies, deceit, betrayal, theft and genocide--wasting BILLIONS in US taxpayer money. 17 million people were harmed by "white-supremacist, racists" in Nazi Germany. It was an atrocity for 17 million people, not just 6 million Jews. The Jews were already engaged in their "religious Supremacy ignorance" in 1850, decades before Germany ever happened and Germany knew what England and the Zionists were up to. Israel is backed by 50 million Evangelical Fundamentalists in the US pushing a completely different pack of violating, religious ignorance around the SECOND COMING, The End of Days, their highly violating interpretations of the Book of Revelations, and being taken into heaven in THE RAPTURE. That's why Israel gets away with murder, theft, scheming, manipulation, and incessant lies to push violating ignorance and obnoxious abuse. There could be peace in the Mideast. The US & England are responsible for creating the atrocity and abomination that is Israel. Cut off all aid, force them to the table for one discussion: how to move them out. Give them the ability to immigrate to US and England. (The Israeli Lobby by John Mearsheimer, "The Mideast: A Century of Conflict" by NPR, Morning Edition, Sept 2007 a 7 part series w 13 good references, The Palestinians by Jonathan Dimbleby, The Accidental Empire by Gorshum Goremberg, Pity The Nation: Israeli Atrocities in Lebanon, Against The Tide by Lincoln Chaffee, Bill Moyers Journal 11-30-07 w John Hagee head of Christians United For Israel (CUFI), NPR, Fresh Air, 11-24-09 &12-6-09; 11-29-11; 8-24 & 10-3-2011 on New Apostolic Reformation)

[quincytodd]

This is just more evidence that the Israelis should never have given the Sinai Peninsula back to Egypt back in 1982! Thanks to Hosni Mubarak, those Kibutzes built there by the Iraelis remain idle to this very day!

[cheapster512]

we were accused of sitting on our hands and demand a apology from any and all who did nothing, when German Nazis did this to the Jews Kicked out of houses and turned over to Nazi ,shops closed only to be turned over Money stolen Amazing that the State of Israel sued every one to recover ,now does the same to Palestinians
Join the UN than ignor the UN

[michellepaquette]

And in the final negotiations, the Jewish Israelis will do the same-demand land and reparations for everything taken from them when Jordan occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank, and expelled all Jews, expropriated every asset on their soil. It will be a two way street all around, which is what the Arabs and Palestinians want to avoid. They do not want to negotiate, because then they will have to admit to the world that they are not so innocent, and admit that there were Jews expelled, not just from Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem, but from all over the Arab world as well, and pay their own part in reparations. It won't be just the Israelis, as is the common perception. And when it comes to their own refugee issue, they will be made to explain why the Arab world did not accept them as fellow Arabs into their countries as citizens, but held them hostage in refugee camps for 65 years and counting, until they can "throw the Jews into the sea" and retake a land that never had any importance to them--until their semitic cousins gained nationhood in part of it.

[Jimmy654321]

Belligerent occupation is governed by The Hague Regulations of 1907, as well as by the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, and the customary laws of belligerent occupation. Security Council Resolution 1322 (2000), paragraph 3 continued: "Calls upon Israel, the occupying Power, to abide scrupulously by its legal obligations and its responsibilities under the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in a Time of War of 12 August 1949;..." Again, the Security Council vote was 14 to 0, becoming obligatory international law.

The Fourth Geneva Convention applies to the West Bank, to the Gaza Strip, and to the entire City of Jerusalem, in order to protect the Palestinians living there. The Palestinian People living in this Palestinian Land are "protected persons" within the meaning of the Fourth Geneva Convention. All of their rights are sacred under international law.

There are 149 substantive articles of the Fourth Geneva Convention that protect the rights of every one of these Palestinians living in occupied Palestine. The Israeli Government is currently violating, and has since 1967 been violating, almost each and every one of these sacred rights of the Palestinian People recognized by the Fourth Geneva Convention. Indeed, violations of the Fourth Geneva Convention are war crimes.

So this is not a symmetrical situation. As matters of fact and of law, the gross and repeated violations of Palestinian rights by the Israeli army and Israeli settlers living illegally in occupied Palestine constitute war crimes. Conversely, the Palestinian People are defending themselves and their Land and their Homes against Israeli war crimes and Israeli war criminals, both military and civilian.

[Alberich873]

Israel was given clear, well defined borders when it was created by the U.N.
Not even the USA should recognize annexations by sheer power.

[cheapster512]

tell that when Mexico takes the sOUTHWEST AND Canada takes the Northeast, China takes the rest

[bluecollarjoe]

Why? Because they are supposedly God's "chosen people" and the rest of the world simply does not matter to the Zionists. 4000 years ago God gave the Jewish refugees from Egypt all that land when he told them to kill every man, woman and child living there at the time.It has to be true because it is in their bible. As long as they keep US military and Security Council backing, they don't give a hoot about what the UN or ICC think or do. They have no intention of conceding any land back to the Palestinians-ever.

[HermannSchmettlapp]

Except each reason you use is an incorrect interpretation of the facts on which you rely. One example is the meaning of being a 'chosen people'. You use American English logic to define the meaning as "an entitlement" or "a right" given which favors Jews. The Hebrew and biblical meaning is quite different. It is an obligation, precisely the opposite of that required by your logic.

[marychgo]

Can anyone explain why it is or was EVER appropriate (or legal!) for Israel to build settlements in territory that belongs to another nation? Territory Israel has occupied since 1967 (45 years!)? Several hundred thousand Israelis currently live in settlements that appear to take up half or more of the territory of Palestine. Why?

[stormerF69]

Any land taken,is to the victor goes the spoils,always has been only Americans want to give back what was taken or lost to another,till it comes to the native Americans. Occupied countries are ruled by the victors,We did divide up Germany after the war,only we did not claim any for our selves.

[cheapster512]

they learned from the nazi