UN Mideast envoy: Settlement activity has doubled since Oslo Accord signing

[ 25/11/2010 - 09:30 AM ]

NAZARETH, (PIC)-- UN Mideast envoy Robert Serry announced Wednesday that the number of Jewish settlements planted on occupied Palestinian land had doubled since Israel signed the Oslo Accords with the Palestinian Authority in 1993.

Speaking at a conference in Jerusalem, Serry called on Israel to take necessary steps toward freezing settlement activity on Palestinian land, a move he said would allow a chance to revive direct peace talks with the PA.

The UN envoy added that the amount of settlements and settlement outposts erected on settlement blocs had nearly doubled in the past 17 years.

The US has been offering Israel a long list of security guarantees in return for a three-month freeze on settlement activity. Israel has refused to take the bargain until America pledges not to request another moratorium.

Meanwhile the same day, a mob of Jewish settlers were leveling around 50 dunums of farmland south of the north West Bank city of Nablus to bridge two settlements in the region currently under expansion, Ghassan Douglas, the PA's official responsible for monitoring settlement in the northern West Bank, said.

Jewish settlers have recently taken over the Nablus village of Jalod and are now working to link the Shilo and Shafut Rahil settlements in the region.

The Palestinian official said the expansion project marks a troubling trend of bridging settlements and outposts.

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