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RAMALLAH, Oct. 7 (Xinhua) -- Secretary General of Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Saeb Erekat called Friday for questioning the Israeli government and holding it accountable for its continuation in settlement activity in the Palestinian territories.
Erekat said in a press statement following his meeting with UN Special Middle East Peace Process Nickolay Mladenov and ambassadors of the U.S., Sweden, Russia, Italy and Greece in separate meetings, and called on them to completely boycott Israeli "colonizing" settlements.
The senior PLO official said the Israeli decision to call for more tenders for settlement in the West Bank "proves that the Israeli government's strategy only aims at destroying the two states solution and replace it with an Apartheid system."
In the backdrop of those meetings, Israeli officials deplored the position of the U.S. State Department in which it strongly condemned Israel's plan to create a new settlement in the West Bank and build 300 new settlement units in the West Bank, out of which 98 are to be built in Shilo settlement erected north of the West Bank.
Israeli Foreign Ministry said the new 98 settlement units to be built in Shilo settlement are not to be considered as a new settlement and will not change the reality on the ground.
The PLO welcomed the U.S. position and called upon the Obama administration to "translate its statements into real action regarding it's position on Israeli settlement activity."
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said last Saturday that the Palestinian leadership is preparing to present to a draft resolution to the UN Security Council against settlements in the West Bank.
Israeli settlement construction is one of the top and most complicates issues in the Palestinian Israeli negotiations.
The peace talks between Palestine and Israel have been stalled since April 2014. The U.S.-sponsored talks that lasted for nine months achieved no tangible results.
