Arab News has obtained a four-page letter sent on Sept. 5 by Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Secretary-General Saeb Erekat to Palestinian diplomatic missions expressing anger over increased Israeli settlement activity.
Erekat, who is also chief Palestinian negotiator, said in the letter that Israel has increased settlement activity by 85 percent so far this year compared to 2016.
“Israeli unlawful practices have included at least 56 plans for 4,909 colonial settlement units between January-August 2017,” he wrote.
The biggest settlement hot spots are Jerusalem and Hebron. In Hebron, Israel has granted the 800 Jewish settlers living illegally in the heart of the 200,000-strong Palestinian city separate legal status.
While the city is divided into two separate areas, H1 under Palestinian control and H2 under Israeli control, both parts fall under the administrative control of the Palestinian municipality.
The separate legal status for settlers has created an apartheid-like situation in Hebron, where a tiny minority has preferential treatment over the majority.
The Associated Press (AP) reported that the military order, signed on Aug. 31, alters a 20-year-old agreement and “establishes a new municipal services administration for the Jewish neighborhood.”
AP quoted the order as saying: “An administration will be established to represent the residents of the Jewish neighborhood in Hebron and to provide them with municipal services in a variety of fields.”
In his letter, Erekat called Israel’s decision a clear violation of the Hebron protocol signed in 1997 by then-Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Hebron Gov. Kamel Hmeid said Israel’s decision is the “most dangerous one since 1967, which prepares to apply total Israeli sovereignty and will create further chaos and instability throughout Palestinian governorates.”
At the time the order was signed, Israeli NGO Peace Now said: “By granting an official status to the Hebron settlers, the Israeli government is formalizing the apartheid system in the city. This step, which happened immediately following the announcement on the evacuation of the settlers who took over a house in Hebron, is another illustration of the policy of compensating the most extreme settlers for their illegal actions.”
Peace Now said the Israeli order “does not create a new local authority or a new community within a regional authority, but rather a settler body with a certain degree of administrative power,” which would not include any Palestinian representation.
Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah said the order is a “violation of international humanitarian law and international conventions.”
Hamdallah, who met Wednesday with the newly elected mayor and members of the Hebron city council, promised to provide “whatever is necessary to support the steadfastness of our people in the face of constant violations from the occupiers and settlers.”
Osama Qawasmeh, a spokesman for Fatah in Hebron and a member of the Palestinian faction’s revolutionary council, warned of a “grave disaster” for Hebron’s people, history and heritage if the Israeli order is not stopped.
Hamas spokesman Abdel Latif Qanouh said the order “contradicts international conventions and reflects the extremism of the occupation government, and further escalates apartheid policies

source:Arab News