PLO urges UN Security Council action on illegal Israeli settlements

The PLO executive committee issued a statement after a meeting on Saturday, calling on “the Security Council to convene an urgent meeting to discuss settlements.”

“We have decided to undertake contacts with all international blocs for the Security Council to adopt a resolution against settlements and for them to be stopped,” the committee statement said.

The development comes days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered for the construction of 300 units in the illegal settlement of Beit El in the occupied West Bank on June 6.

Nabil Abu Rudeina, a spokesman for acting Palestinian Authority chief Mahmud Abbas, said on the same day, “We strongly condemn Netanyahu’s announcement of the settlement decision on Palestinian land.”

The international community regards all the Israeli settlements across the West Bank as illegal under international law.

    More than half a million Israelis live in over 120 illegal settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East al-Quds (Jerusalem).