The Palestinian Authority (PA) on Thursday blasted Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, after he announced plans to build 3,000 housing units in Jerusalem's Givat Hamatos and 2,200 housing units in the city's Har Homa neighborhood.
Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas, said in a statement quoted by the Wafa news agency that “Netanyahu’s insistence to build thousands of new settler units on the territories of the Palestinian state is a systematic destruction of the two-state solution.”
He noted that the new construction was designed to implement the US peace plan, known as the “Deal of the Century”, which he claimed “violates resolutions of international legitimacy and norms of international law, under which settlement construction is illegal.”
Abu Rudeineh said that Netanyahu’s attempt to win the votes of the right-wing parties at the expense of the Palestinian people’s rights will not bring about peace and stability, and would drag the region into a downwards spiral of tension and violence with unexpected repercussions.
He warned that the implementation of the new construction plans would fully cut off Jerusalem from Bethlehem, and subsequently what chance remains for establishing just and comprehensive peace based on resolutions of international legitimacy.
He urged the international community to immediately intervene to stop Israel’s “madness aimed to impose the policy of fait accompli.”