CAIRO, May 30 (Xinhua) -- The Cairo-based Arab League (AL) on Wednesday condemned the recent Israeli approval of building thousands of new settlements in Jerusalem.
"This constant aggression on the Palestinian people is violation of all resolutions of international legitimacy and all the signed laws, treaties and agreements," Saeed Abu Ali, AL assistant secretary general for the occupied Palestinian and Arab lands, said in a statement.
Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman recently approved the construction of 3,900 settlement units in the occupied West Bank including the disputed holy city of Jerusalem.
Meanwhile, the Israeli planning council approved the building of 2,500 units to expand West Bank settlements.
The Israeli settlement expansion is being carried out "amid absence of international accountability and encouragement of the U.S. government in defiance of the will of the international community," said Abu Ali.
He also slammed the recent ruling of an Israeli high court to demolish the Bedouin community in Khan al-Ahmar, east of Jerusalem, which will forcibly displace 35 Palestinian families as Israel plans to build 92 new settlement units nearby.
The ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict has continued since the Western-backed creation of Israel by occupying Palestinian territories in 1948.
The deadlock of the peace process between Palestinians and Israelis is largely attributed to Israel's settlement expansion policy, which is rejected even by its strongest ally the United States.
The U.S. recently moved its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem despite regional and international outcry, after President Donald Trump declared Jerusalem as the capital of Israel last December.
The Palestinians seek to establish an independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital along the pre-1967 borders in the light of the UN-proposed two-state solution.
