Such activity is “making the twostate solution increasingly unattainable and undermining Palestinian belief in the international peace efforts.”
Israelis and Palestinians have engaged in inflammatory rhetoric that violates UN Resolution 2334, which condemns settlement activity, UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process Nikolay Mladenov said on Monday.
He presented the UN Security Council with his third report on the resolution since its approval last December, in which he gave both Israelis and Palestinians a failing grade.
“I, once again, urge both parties to demonstrate their commitment to rejecting violence, inflammatory rhetoric and provocative actions,” Mladenov said.
During the Temple Mount crisis in July, Hamas and senior Palestinian Authority officials called for a “day of rage.”
“Hamas and others continued to openly glorify attacks, describing the murder of three Israelis at their home in Halamish as “heroic,” Mladenov said, adding, however, that Abbas explicitly condemned that attack.
Israeli officials, including Netanyahu, he said, have used “provocative rhetoric” in support of settlement activity. “Other senior Israeli politicians also made repeated calls for annexation of the West Bank, with one Member of Knesset expressing his desire to ‘destroy’ hopes for Palestinian statehood, and stated that ‘there is room to define and realize the national aspirations of one people only – the Jewish people.’” During the last three months, Israelis and Palestinians did not take steps to “reverse negative trends on the ground that are imperiling the two-state solution,” he said.
This also means that Israelis and Palestinians must halt acts of violence and uphold “existing security coordination,” Mladenov said.
“Israel did not “cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory, including east Jerusalem, and fully respect all of its legal obligations in this regard,” as called for by the resolution,” he added.
“Since 20 June, Israel’s illegal settlement activities have continued at a high rate, a consistent pattern over the course of this year.”
Such activity, he said, is “making the twostate solution increasingly unattainable and undermining Palestinian belief in the international peace efforts.”
Israelis, Palestinians and the international community must take steps to resolve the conflict and achieve a two-state solution, Mladenov continued.
“We have a role and a responsibility to support the parties in resolving this conflict,” he said.
As reported by The Jerusalem Post