UN, Palestine denounce Israeli land grab

NEW YORK: A UN envoy has warned that the situation in the Middle East was changing “dangerously” as Israel builds new Jewish settlements and Palestinians remain divided.
Nickolay Mladenov told the Security Council that Israel’s planned new settlements in east Jerusalem were part of “increasingly worrying” developments and urged Israel to halt the construction.
“The situation on the ground is changing steadily, dangerously, as proponents of Israeli settlement expansion feel emboldened, internal divisions among Palestinians flare up, and the prospect of a future Palestinian state comes under threat like never before,” Mladenov said.
He spoke after Israel revived plans to build 500 new homes for Jewish settlers in east Jerusalem, which the Palestinians hope to make the capital of their future independent state.
The United Nations maintains that settlements are illegal and has repeatedly called on Israel to halt them, but UN officials have reported a surge in construction over the past months.
Mladenov told the council that “inaction has a cost — a cost measured in human ... suffering” and took a veiled swipe at Israel by arguing that those who oppose a Palestinian state “offer no viable alternative.”
Condemning the move, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry said on Thursday such “encroachment of settlement” makes it necessary for the international community to “awaken its conscience” and “deter the occupation.”
It added that the move would “lead to undermining any opportunity for applying the two-state solution.”
The ministry urged the UN Security Council as well as the international community to support the Arab-Palestinian attempts to submit a draft resolution to the council that calls for stopping construction of settlements and back the French-led efforts to hold an international peace conference in Paris before the end of 2016.
Meanwhile, with backing from several other countries, Israeli firefighters battled blazes around the country on Thursday as police said four Palestinians were arrested in connection with one of the large fires, which have damaged homes and prompted the evacuation of thousands of people.
Spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said police were investigating all possible causes, including arson. Windy and hot weather have helped fan the flames. He said the four arrested Palestinians were to appear in court later in connection to a blaze near Jerusalem. Media reports said it was not clear whether that fire was the result of arson or an accident.
The rash of fires is the worst since 2010, when Israel suffered the single deadliest wildfire in its history. That blaze burned out of control for four days, killed 42 people and was extinguished only after firefighting aircraft from as far away as the United States arrived and brought it under control.