Israel's celebration of settlements refusal to peace

Palestinian national unity government said Thursday that Israel's celebration of the 50 years of the commencement of settlements in the West Bank showed that it was committed to occupation and rejected peace building efforts.

Government Spokesperson Yousef Al-Mahmoud made the remarks in a press statement in response to the speech of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in an event entitled "50 Years of Settlement in Judea and Samaria" on Wednesday.

Netanyahu's speech "proves to the entire world what level the Israeli government has reached in fighting back efforts for peace and halting the risk of tensions and violence in the region caused by the occupation," said the Palestinian spokesperson.

Mahmoud urged the international community to intervene firmly to preserve the peace efforts, including the recent UN Security Council resolution 2334 that condemned settlements with an overwhelming majority and demanded an immediate stop to the settlement activity in the occupied West Bank.

He reiterated that peace and security in the region would not prevail until the end of Israel's occupation and the establishment of the Palestinian state on the borders of 1967 with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Netanyahu attended an event on Tuesday in the Gush Etziodn settlement bloc in the south of the West Bank celebrating the 50 years of the commencement of settlement activity.

Netanyahu said during the event that the settlement projects were to stay and that Israel would not remove any settlement in the future.

In response to Netanyahu's speech, member of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Hanan Ashrawi said that the Israeli prime minister proved "his intransigence and intentional refusal to abide by international law and conventions, standing UN resolutions and global consensus."

"Clearly, Netanyahu is exhibiting the arrogance of turning such international norms into a mockery," she said, urging the international community to hold Israel accountable for "its destruction of the very foundations of the two state solution and peace."

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)