UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon yesterday slammed Israel’s settlement activities as “provocative acts” that raise questions about the nation’s commitment to a two-state solution amid growing Palestinian frustration over nearly 50 years of occupation.
The Palestinians want an independent state in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, areas Israel occupied in a 1967 war. The last round of peace talks broke down in April 2014, and Israeli-Palestinian violence has surged in recent months.
Israel confirmed on Thursday that it would appropriate a large tract of fertile land in the occupied West Bank. The land is near Jordan in an area where Israel already has many settlement farms built on land Palestinians seek for a state.
Ban said he was “deeply troubled” by reports that the Israeli government had approved plans for more than 150 new homes in “illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank”.
“These provocative acts are bound to increase the growth of settler populations, further heighten tensions and undermine any prospects for a political road ahead,” Ban told a UN Security Council meeting on the Middle East.
“Continued settlement activities are an affront to the Palestinian people and to the international community,” he said. “They rightly raise fundamental questions about Israel’s commitment to a two-state solution.”
He said frustration was growing among Palestinians.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed Ban’s remarks.
US ambassador to the UN Samantha Power said Washington strongly opposed settlement activity.
“Steps aimed at advancing the Israeli settlement programme ... are fundamentally incompatible with the two-state solution and raise legitimate questions about Israel’s long-term intentions,” Power told the council.
About 550,000 Jewish settlers live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, according to Israeli government and think-tank statistics. About 350,000 Palestinians live in East Jerusalem and 2.7mn in West Bank.
Riyad Mansour, the chief Palestinian delegate at the UN, called on the Security Council take action against Israeli settlements.
“It must involve measures by all states and go beyond not rendering aid or assistance to holding Israel accountable for its actions,” Mansour said.  
On Monday, a spokeswoman for the Israeli settlements watchdog Peace Now said  that Israel had approved plans to build 153 new settler homes in the occupied West Bank,
Hagit Ofran said the plans involved small settlements in the Ariel area in the northern West Bank, the Carmel settlement in the Hebron area and the Gush Etzion settlement bloc.
According to the NGO, the move marks the end of an informal construction freeze in the Palestinian territory that lasted 18 months.
Peace Now said on December 28 that Israel was working to revive and extend plans for new Jewish settler homes in the contentious area of the occupied West Bank known as E1.
In a report it said was based on government data obtained under a Freedom of Information Act request, the group said the housing ministry was seeking to build 55,548 units in the West Bank - including two new settlements - of which more than 8,300 homes would be in E1.
E1 and the adjacent Maaleh Adumim settlement form an Israeli buffer east of Jerusalem that the Palestinians say would divide the West Bank and badly hurt the possibility of a contiguous Palestinian state.
“The area of Maale Adumim and E1 is one of the most sensitive areas in terms of the chances for two state solution,” Peace Now wrote.
“For these reasons, whenever an Israeli leader tries to promote the plans in E1, the international community strongly condemns them.”
The United States, the United Nations and the European Union oppose all Israeli settlement building but have voiced particular concern about plans for E1.