PNA urges Quartet to press Israel over settlement

The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) on Wednesday called on international Middle East peace players to press Israel to stop settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territories immediately.

"The Israeli government has selected the way of settlement instead of the way of peace," said Saeb Erekat, a senior Palestinian negotiator. If the international Quartet "wants to make peace in the region, it should force Israel to retract its settlement decisions," Erekat said in a statement sent to the press.

Israeli authorities have reportedly invited offers for building486 houses in a Jewish settlement in Eastern Jerusalem two days after approving the construction of 455 blocs in the West Bank.

"The Israeli government is intensifying the settlement and imposing facts on the ground," Erekat said, adding that 3,000 housing units are being built these days in the settlements, "more than the average of previous years."

Erekat reminded the Quartet which comprises the US, EU, Russia and UN that "there is no middle-ground solutions in the settlement issue which is illegal according to the international laws."

Political negotiations between Israel and the PNA are stalled due to the Jewish settlement on what would be the land of the future Palestinian statehood.

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas also refuses to meet Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu unless the latter stops the settlement activities and endorses the two-state solution.