CAIRO, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- The Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul-Gheit denounced on Thursday Israel's decision to build 176 settlements in Jerusalem.
In a press statement, Aboul-Gheit said that the decision exposes Israel's insistence on challenging international community's will and undermining any efforts aiming at implementing the two-state solution.
Abul-Gheit added that the UN Security Council Resolution 2334 stresses the international community's stance against Israeli occupying activities and settlements illegally established in the Palestinian territories.
The AL chief also underlined that the Israeli government has to choose now between settlement and peace, adding that it cannot seek establishing settlements and reaching peace at the same time.
The decades-long Palestinian-Israeli conflict emerged since the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories and the Western-backed creation of Israel in 1948.
The Palestinians seek to establish an independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital in the light of the UN-proposed two-state solution based on the pre-1967 borders.
So far, 24 years of U.S. sponsored peace process has failed to give the Palestinians a state on the territories occupied in 1976 that include the Gaza Strip, West bank and East Jerusalem.
