Halt settlement activity, UN chief tells Israel

UNITED NATIONS - UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday urged Israel to end its provocative actions in east Jerusalem and to abide by its commitments to freeze all settlement activity in the occupied West Bank.
The Secretary-General is dismayed at continued Israeli actions in occupied east Jerusalem, including the demolition of Palestinian homes, the eviction of Palestinian families and the insertion of settlers into Palestinian neighbourhoods, a UN statement said. The eviction of a Palestinian family in East Jerusalem is just the most recent incident.
Warning that such actions stoke tensions, cause suffering and further undermine trust, Ban urged Israel to cease such provocative actions.
He also reiterated his call on Israel to implement its commitments under the blueprint for Middle East peace put forward by the US, the EU, Russia and the UN by freezing all settlement activity, including natural growth; dismantling outposts; and reopening Palestinian institutions in East Jerusalem.
Reuters adds: Palestinians may have to abandon the goal of an independent state if Israel continues to expand Jewish settlements and the US does not stop it, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said on Wednesday.
It may be time for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to tell his people the truth, that with the continuation of settlement activities, the two-state solution is no longer an option, Erekat told a news conference in the West Bank town of Ramallah.
Erekat said US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton - who praised as unprecedented Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus offer to limit temporarily construction in West Bank settlements to 3,000 additional housing units - was only opening the door to more settlements in the next two years.
The alternative left for Palestinians is to refocus their attention on the one-state solution where Muslims, Christians and Jews can live as equals, Erekat said. It is very serious. This is the moment of truth for us. Netanyahu, Erekat said, told Abbas that Jerusalem will be the eternal and united capital of Israel, that refugees wont be discussed, that our state will be demilitarised, that we have to recognise the Jewish state, that its not going to be the 1967 borders, that the skies will be under his control.
This is dictation and not negotiations, he said.
Hillary reaffirmed in Cairo on Wednesday that Washington does not accept the legitimacy of Israeli settlements built on land captured in a 1967 war. But she added, in another nudge to Palestinians to talk with Israel:
Getting into final status negotiations will allow us to bring an end to settlement activity.
She also said peace talks must include the disputed city of Jerusalem, stressing Washington is determined to push for a Palestinian state.
Erekat said Palestinians made a mistake in the past by agreeing to negotiate with Israel without insisting that settlement building be stopped, and there were not about to repeat that error this time.
The US House of Representatives on Tuesday condemned as biased a UN report accusing Israel and Hamas of war crimes in Gaza, and urged President Obama to oppose UN endorsement of its findings. The House acted despite a written protest to lawmakers by South African jurist Richard Goldstone, who said his report on the December-January war in the Gaza Strip was misrepresented. Opponents of the House move warned that although it was non-binding, it would hurt US credibility as a broker of Middle East peace. But sponsors of the House resolution, approved 344-36, said it was necessary to formally denounce the document because it displayed a bias against close US ally Israel.