State of Palestine

Palestine Liberation Organization

Negotiations Affairs Department

State of Palestine

Palestine Liberation Organization

Negotiations Affairs Department

July 24, 2016

PLO Secretary General Dr. Saeb Erekat on expansion of the illegal Gilo settlement

We strongly condemn the decision of the occupation authorities to advance plans to build 770 units in the illegal settlement of Gilo, built on lands of the Palestinian towns and villages of: Beit Jala, Beit Safafa and Wallajeh, between Bethlehem and Occupied East Jerusalem. This approval comes as Israel continues the construction of its Annexation Wall in the same area (Cremisan), as part of Israel’s settlement enterprise in the Occupied State of Palestine.

The Secretary General of the PLO, Dr. Saeb Erekat, condemned the current Israeli government for its failure to entrench a culture of peace and co-existence within Israeli society. Erekat declared “Not only does the Israeli government fail to foster and promote a culture of peace, official Israeli discourse entrenches hatred, racism, and discriminatory attitudes against Palestinians. The discourse is only further entrenched by the institutional protection that is given to those who commit or incite violence against Palestinians.”

PLO Executive Committee

Department of Culture and Information

July 5, 2016

PLO Executive Member Dr. Hanan Ashrawi on Israel’s expansion of its illegal settlement enterprise in and around Occupied Jerusalem

“We strongly denounce plans by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman to build 560 units in the illegal settlement of Maale Adumim and 240 units in the illegal settlements of Ramot, Gilo and Har Homa.  By isolating Jerusalem from its Palestinian environs and ethnically cleansing the occupied city of its indigenous population, the Israeli government is bent on destroying the viability, integrity and territorial contiguity of a future Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.