Palestinians to sue Britain over 1917 pledge on Jewish state

The UK government has yet to respond to al-Maliki’s statement.

We strongly oppose settlement activity, which is corrosive to the cause of peace.

As for the Balfour Declaration, Abu Mazen called on the Arab states to assist the Palestinians in filing a lawsuit against the declaration “after which hundreds of thousands of Jews were brought from Europe and other places to Palestine at the expense of our people”.

A recent report by the diplomatic Quartet – the United States, European Union, Russia and the UN – said settlement expansion was eroding the possibility of a two-state solution to the conflict.

The Israeli government has issued tenders for the construction of 323 new housing units for Jewish settlers in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem, the Israeli media reported Wednesday. The report severally criticized Israeli settlement construction, however the Americans exerted pressure on the Quartet to balance the report and make sure it also condemns the Palestinians for incitement and violence against Israelis.

The U.N. special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, Nickolay Mladenov, told Reuters on Thursday the Israeli policies are destroying prospects for a Palestinian state.

In its weekly report on Israeli human rights violations in the occupied Palestinian Territories, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) said the illegal closure, which has been steadily tightened since June 2007 has had a disastrous impact on the humanitarian and economic situation in Gaza Strip. “Gilo is a deal-breaker”.

We are also concerned about recent increased demolitions of Palestinian structures in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which reportedly have left dozens of Palestinians homeless, including children.‎ More than 650 Palestinian structures have been demolished this year, with more Palestinian structures demolished in the West Bank and East Jerusalem thus far than in all of 2015.

FIFA’s increasingly hard diplomatic attempts to mediate in the ongoing spat between Israel and Palestine over free movement of Palestinian footballers and equipment have been highlighted yet again with reports that Israel intervened to hinder the Palestine Cup, one of the region’s most anticipated competitions. East Jerusalem was annexed by Israel some time ago, which considers the area part of Israel even though it is not recognized internationally as such. The demolitions, which Israel said were meant to weed out illegal buildings, left many families homeless.