RAMALLAH _ Palestine News Network
PLO executive committee secretary Saeb Erekat on Friday called for European steps to halt Israeli settlement.
In a statement after meeting with British consul General Philippe Holl in the West Bank, Erekat said the EU countries should "take practical steps to stop Israel´s crimes, especially in the area of intensifying colonial settlement activities."
Erekat referred to Israel´s practice of "executions in the field as well as in the return marches in the Gaza Strip, the confiscation of land, the demolition of houses, the siege and closure, and the imposition of facts on the ground, especially in and around the city of Jerusalem and the arrests."
He urged the countries of the European Union to fully boycott the Israeli colonial settlements, to recognize the state of Palestine in its capital, East Jerusalem, on the borders of 4 June June 1967, and to work to provide international protection to the Palestinian people.
Last night, the Palestinian presidency denounced Israel´s ratification of hundreds of new settlement units in the West Bank after Israeli media reported on Wednesday that the Israeli "civil administration" in the Palestinian territories had approved the construction of 1450 new settlement units in the West Bank .
