UNITED NATIONS
Palestine has called for action in the United Nations to stop Israel to go ahead with a fresh settlement plan on occupied territory in the West Bank.
Palestine's Permanent Observer Mission to the UN has sent letters to the UN chief, the General Assembly and to the Security Council to move against the Israeli plan to build 3,000 new homes in the West Bank, which Palestine branded as a reaction to the recent upgrading of its UN status to "non-member observer state."
The letter said that new settlement plan jeopardized efforts to maintain peace and security in the Middle East, urging the UN "to stop Israel's illegal actions so that the peace negotiations could resume."
Palestine's top negotiator Saeb Erekat has said that the international recognition of Palestine's UN status upgrade had made Israel's actions in the West Bank and Jerusalem "war crimes".
Erekat said international resolutions obliged Israel to release all Palestinian prisoners saying that the upgraded UN status gave Palestine the right to appeal to international law, including the Third Geneva Convention on the treatment of war prisoners.
