Israeli settlement activity illegal under international law: UN

The United Nations has called on the Israeli regime to stop settlement construction in the occupied West Bank, pledging his commitment to the so-called two-state solution.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday met with Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah in the West Bank city of Ramallah, where he said, "There is no plan B for the two-state solution."

"We believe that settlement activity is illegal under international law. It’s an obstacle to the two-state solution."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently vowed to never uproot any West Bank settlement, saying the Tel Aviv regime would never remove any of the more than 100 Jewish settlements in the territory that Israel captured in 1967.

"We have returned here for good," Netanyahu said at a Monday ceremony in Barkan, a settlement in the northern West Bank. "There will be no more uprooting of settlements in the Land of Israel. Settlements will not be uprooted."

Netanyahu's comments enraged Palestinians and raised new questions about the slow start for so-called peace efforts led by White House adviser Jared Kushner.

Palestinians have expressed frustration with US President Donald Trump’s approach and are trying to ratchet up international pressure for a settlement freeze.

“They promised to come back in a few weeks with clearer answers,” Hamdallah said of the Trump negotiators at a news conference with the UN chief.

Nabil Abu Rdeneh, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, has also denounced Netanyahu's comments and urged Washington to intervene.

"This is an Israeli message to the US administration, which sought through an important tour in the area to do something in order to rescue the peace process," the spokesman said, adding, "We call upon the US administration to deal with these provocations," which he said hinder peace efforts by the United States and are "an attempt to return things to square one."

Trump's hawkish policies toward Palestinians emboldened Netanyahu

Since the inauguration of Trump in January, the regime in Tel Aviv has stepped up construction of settler units on the occupied Palestinian land in a blatant violation of international law.

Less than a month before Trump took office, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 2334, calling on Israel to “immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem” al-Quds.

Trump backtracked on Washington’s support for a “two-state solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict earlier this year, saying he would support any solution favored by both sides.

“Looking at two-state or one-state, I like the one that both parties like. I’m very happy with the one both parties like. I can live with either one,” the US president said during a joint press conference with Netanyahu in Washington on February 15.

Trump has also vowed to fulfill his campaign pledge to move the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem al-Quds.

In early August, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat denounced the Trump administration for silence on the expansion of settlements in the occupied territories as well as failure to prop up the two-state solution. Erekat said such a conduct had encouraged the Israeli regime to continue its “apartheid” policies.

About 600,000 Israelis live in over 230 illegal settlements built since the 1967 occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East Jerusalem al-Quds.

Palestinians want the West Bank as part of a future independent Palestinian state, with East Jerusalem al-Quds as its capital.

The last round of Israeli-Palestinian talks collapsed in 2014. Among the major sticking points in those negotiations was Israel’s continued settlement expansion on Palestinian territories.

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