By MOHAMMED DARAGHMEH | AP
RAMALLAH, West Bank: Visiting UN chief Ban Ki-moon said Saturday that Israeli settlement building anywhere on occupied land is illegal and must be stopped, even as a Palestinian teenager was killed by Israeli troops elsewhere in the West Bank.
The death of 16-year-old Mohammed Qadus, who was shot in the chest by Israeli troops, comes amid heightened tension between Israelis and Palestinians after Israel announced plans last week for 1,600 new homes for Jews in East Jerusalem. The settlement announcement has sparked outrage and protests from Palestinians, as well as sharp condemnation from Israel's closest ally — the United States — and the UN secretary-general.
From a hilltop observation post on the outskirts of Ramallah, Ban got a closer look Saturday at some of the Israeli enclaves scattered across Palestinian territories. The panorama included the sprawling West Bank settlement of Givat Zeev, home to 11,000 Israelis who live in rows of red-roofed houses, and Jewish neighborhoods in Arab East Jerusalem, the Israeli-annexed sector of the city that Palestinians want as the capital of a future state.
The brief geography lesson came a day after Ban, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and other major Mideast mediators — known as the Quartet — met in Moscow to try to find a way to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
The mediators urged Israel to halt all settlement construction, which has emerged as a key obstacle to renewing talks. Israel has agreed to curb settlement construction in the West Bank, but not in East Jerusalem, claiming the entire city as Israel's eternal capital.
On Saturday, Ban rejected Israel's distinction between East Jerusalem and the West Bank, noting that both are occupied lands. “The world has condemned Israel's settlement plans in East Jerusalem,” Ban told a news conference after his brief tour. “Let us be clear. All settlement activity is illegal anywhere in occupied territory and must be stopped”.
The UN chief reassured his Palestinian hosts that the international community supports the establishment of a Palestinian state, and also expressed concern about what he said was a worsening humanitarian situation in blockaded Hamas-ruled Gaza.
Meanwhile, US President Barack Obama’s Mideast envoy George Mitchell is returning to the region over the weekend and is planning to brief Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on US efforts to revive peace negotiations. Abbas has said he will not negotiate with Israel directly unless it freezes all settlement construction, including in East Jerusalem.
Violent protests have erupted several times in the past week in East Jerusalem, where residents are angry over both the new Jewish housing plans and rumors that Jewish extremists are plotting to take over an Old City religious site.
The city was largely calm on Saturday, but in the northern West Bank, a doctor at a Nablus hospital said Qadus died after being shot in the chest by Israeli forces. Palestinians said a 17-year-old protester was also in serious condition after being shot in the head.
Arab News
