NEW YORK
The United Nations Security Council will convene an emergency meeting Wednesday to address the recent wave of Israeli settlement activity in occupied East Jerusalem.
The session was requested by Jordan on behalf of the state of Palestine following a call from Palestine’s U.N. envoy Riyad Mansour, who wrote in a letter Tuesday to the body that current Israeli actions threaten to “ignite another cycle of violence.”
The letter warned of “the dangerously escalating tensions in East Jerusalem” following the Israeli government’s decision Monday to construct another 1,060 Jewish-only settlement units in two regions of the occupied land.
Israeli daily Haaretz quoted unnamed officials in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office as saying that 660 of the units will be built in the northern neighborhood of Ramot Shlomo, and another 400 in Har Homa in the south. Israel occupied East Jerusalem during the 1967 Middle East War. It unilaterally annexed Jerusalem in 1980, claiming it as the capital of the self-proclaimed Jewish state – a move never recognized by the international community.
Palestinians accuse Israel of waging an aggressive campaign to "Judaize" the city with the aim of effacing its Arab and Islamic identity and ultimately driving out its Palestinian inhabitants.
While addressing the Security Council on the situation in the Middle East, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that Israel’s "illegal" settlement activity in occupied East Jerusalem is threatening the prospects of a two-state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, referring to a U.N.-proposed solution that calls for "two states for two peoples” and envisages an independent state of Palestine alongside the state of Israel.
"International law is clear: Settlement activity is illegal. It runs totally counter to the pursuit of a two-state solution. I urge the Israeli government to reverse these activities," he said.
Washington also voiced concern over Israel’s recent settlement policies, with the State Department saying increased settlement building is incompatible with a two-state solution.
International law views the West Bank and East Jerusalem as "occupied territories," and considers as illegal all Jewish settlement constructed on the land.
Mansour’s letter also warned against the possible outcome of an Israeli proposal to change the status quo over the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem.
Israel's parliament, known as the Knesset, plans to vote next month on a bill that will allow for the division of Al-Aqsa Mosque. The bill will also open the door for Jewish prayers inside the Islamic house of worship.
“We stress that these actions are inflaming an already-volatile situation and threatens to further upset the religious sensitivities in the city,” Mansour said.
Al-Aqsa represents the world's third holiest site for Muslim, while Jews refer to the area as the "Temple Mount," claiming it was the site of two prominent Jewish temples in ancient times.
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