"Israeli plans for settlements must stop, UN chief says; Palestinian teen killed in clash in West Bank" by Mohammed Daraghmeh, Associated Press | March 21, 2010
RAMALLAH, West Bank — UN secretary general Ban Ki Moon said during a visit yesterday that Israeli settlement building anywhere on occupied land is illegal and must be stopped....
From a hilltop observation post on the outskirts of the Palestinian city of Ramallah, Ban got a closer look yesterday at some of the Israeli enclaves scattered across Palestinian-claimed territories.
The panorama included the sprawling West Bank settlement of Givat Zeev, home to 11,000 Israelis who live in rows of red-roofed houses, and Jewish neighborhoods in traditionally Arab East Jerusalem, the Israeli-annexed sector of the city that Palestinians claim as a future capital.
Oh, that's nice.
The brief geography lesson came a day after Ban, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, and other major Mideast mediators — known as the Quartet — met in Moscow to try to find a way to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
The mediators urged Israel to halt all settlement construction.
Related: Usraeli Food Fight
Israel has agreed to curb settlement construction in the West Bank, but not in East Jerusalem, claiming the entire city as Israel’s eternal capital.
Yesterday, Ban rejected Israel’s distinction between East Jerusalem and the West Bank, noting that both are occupied lands.
“The world has condemned Israel’s settlement plans in East Jerusalem,’’ Ban told a news conference after his brief tour. “Let us be clear. All settlement activity is illegal anywhere in occupied territory and must be stopped.’’
Really gave 'em a tongue lashing, huh?
