Jerusalem panel urges pressure on Israel over settlements

Muslim nations urged the international community Saturday to put pressure on Israel to stop building Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, as the end of talks in Morocco. The call was issued by the Al-Quds (Jerusalem) Committee amid heightened concern that the settlements undermine US-brokered peace talks that resumed in July after bogging down three years earlier over the construction drive. "The international community must... put pressure on Israel to stop the illegal and provocative settlement construction," a statement said at the end of a two-day meeting in Marrakesh. That "will create a favourable context for the pursuit of peace negotiations" between Israel and the Palestinians, and for relations between Israel, its Arab neighbours and the Muslim world at large, the statement added. The committee was founded by the pan-Muslim Organisation of Islamic Cooperation in 1975 to resist the confiscation of Palestinian land and assets in Jerusalem. Chairman King Mohamed VI of Morocco opened the meeting Friday by calling for "a strong mobilisation of our own means and resources... to defend the Holy City." Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas later claimed Israel was using the peace talks as a "cover" to expand settlements in the West Bank. Concern over the settlements returned to the fore last week when Israel announced plans to build 1,800 new settler homes in the West Bank, including annexed Arab east Jerusalem, which the Palestinians want as the capital of their future state. The announcement came only days after the latest peace mission by US Secretary of State John Kerry, who criticised the settlements as "illegitimate" and "unhelpful." The controversial decision prompted Britain, Italy, Frnce and Spain to summon Israeli ambassadors in protest, with the Jewish state calling in European ambassadors on Friday in a tit-for-tat move. After Israel unveiled its plans, a furious row erupted with the United States. Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon launched a bitter personal tirade against Secretary of State John Kerry for his "obsession" with brokering a framework peace deal by April. On Thursday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused the European Union of a "hypocritical" attitude toward the peace process, saying it should be more concerned by Palestinian militancy than Israeli housing construction. The international community considers all settlements to be illegal that were built on land seized by Israel during the 1967 Six Day War.