By KUNA
Gaza : Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat on Monday said that matters were getting more complicated with the Israelis following their decision to carry on with the expansion of the Abu Ghuneim Mountain (Har Homa) Settlement near Jerusalem.
The Palestinian side asked the Middle East peace Quartet and the US Administration to do their share in what is running against the announced agreements, Dr. Erekat, Head of the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s Negotiations Affairs Department, told Palestine Radio.
According to the first phase of the peace roadmap, drawn up by the Quartet, Israel is demanded to thoroughly stop settlement activities and halt the construction of the separation Barrier in the West Bank as well as the confiscation of Palestinian land.
“The Israeli side has to make a choice, peace or settlement; both are not possible at one time,” Erekat said noting that the Palestinians were waiting for replies from many international parties.
The Palestinian senior negotiator also denounced Israel’s claims that halting settlements did not include Jerusalem. He underlined the fact all the Israeli measures on the Palestinian land seized by Israel in1967, among them Jerusalem, Gaza and the West Bank, were void and illegal.
These are all occupied lands where all settlement activities have to come to a halt.
Israel has recently announced it would carry on with construction of new houses in Har Noma despite the criticism y the US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice.