Israel Settlements 'Pushing' Palestinians to Hague Court
Israel's plans for new settler homes are accelerating Palestinian moves to appeal to the Hague court over Jewish settlement policy, a senior official told AFP on Wednesday.
"The intensification of settlement activity and all the Israeli actions, from killings to arrests, are pushing us to accelerate our recourse to the International Criminal Court," said Palestinian negotiator Mohammed Shtayyeh.
His remarks were made as Israel was in the process of pushing through plans for more than 5,000 new settler homes in annexed east Jerusalem, with hundreds more to be approved in the West Bank next week.
With their new-found rank of non-member observer state at the United Nations, the Palestinians could potentially have access to the ICC in The Hague, sparking fears they could sue Israeli officials for war crimes -- particularly over settlement building.
Shortly after winning the U.N. upgrade on November 29, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he had no plans to immediately approach the tribunal which would only be possible after the Palestinians first sign and ratify the Rome Statute.
Earlier, an Israeli committee gave final approval to plans for 2,610 new homes in Givat HaMatos, an as yet unbuilt area of annexed east Jerusalem in what will be the city's first new settlement neighborhood in 12 years.
And on Monday, Israel okayed another 1,500 homes elsewhere in the city's eastern sector.
Shtayyeh said the recent spate of approvals was not linked to the U.N. bid, but part of "an electoral campaign for the rightwing government" of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ahead of a general election on January 22.
"These (decisions) are the death announcement for the two-state solution," he said.
Last week, Shtayyeh said a Palestinian legal team was looking into which international bodies to join, including the ICC and the International Court of Justice, warning that Israel's actions were "pushing" them down that route faster than they had wanted.
Some 200,000 Israelis live in settlement neighborhoods of east Jerusalem with another 340,000 in the rest of the occupied West Bank.
Source: Agence France Presse
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