Embassy of the State of Palestine

PLO Executive Committee member Dr. Hanan Ashrawi vehemently denied Israeli reports that with every group of prisoners released, the Israeli government would issue permits for more settlement units:

“Such reports are fabricated and malicious; the Palestinian side never agreed to such an exchange; on the contrary, Palestinian prisoners should have been released in compliance with earlier signed agreements. The only linkage with the release of prisoners that the President approved is in delaying the pursuit of UN membership in international agencies and organizations.”

The Palestinian Authority is ramping up its diplomatic efforts against Israeli settlements in the territories it occupied in the 1967 war. It has called on 50 countries around the world to freeze business dealings and withdraw investments.

In letters to countries in Latin America and Europe, as well as to South Africa, Australia, Japan and South Korea, the Palestinian Authority asked governments to put pressure on local companies and discourage any relations with the Israeli settlements, Muhammad Shtayyeh, a senior Palestinian official, told the Financial Times.

The messages also requested that Israeli companies with connections to the settlements are barred from doing business in those countries. Citizens of those countries should be advised to abandon the settlements, because staying there is illegal, the Palestinian Authority said.

The campaign for an economic boycott was also given a boost by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas during his trip to Europe.

President Mahmoud Abbas has called on Western companies to respect the international law by pulling out of settlements in the occupied West Bank.

January-June 2013 – Summary of the First Half of 2013:
70% rise in construction in the settlements; 86% without tenders

The following data is based on Peace Now’s survey of aerial photos and a count of all units that started/ended to be built in each settlement.

Construction Starts: 70% rise in construction starts compared to the equivalent period last year. 1,708 units (in January-June 2013) 180 of them in illegal outposts, vs. 995 (in January-June 2012).
Units Completed: The construction of 1,794 housing units ended.
Units Under Construction: 2,840 housing units were under construction during this period.

Tony Blair, the former British prime minister, said a $4bn economic plan being drafted alongside Arab-Israeli peace negotiations will be ready to launch within weeks but he acknowledged that securing Israeli approval for investments in areas under its administrative control would be “tough”.

(Reuters) - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday invited Pope Francis to visit the Holy Land.

The pontiff, who has made many appeals for peace in the Middle East since his election in March, has already told Israel he will visit and is widely expected to make the trip next year.

"I invited him to the Holy Land," Abbas said after a 30-minute private audience with the pope in the Vatican's Apostolic Palace, their first meeting.

RAMALLAH, Oct. 9 (Xinhua) -- The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) is to ask UNESCO to send a mission to probe the recent Israeli measures in east Jerusalem, mainly against al-Aqsa Mosque, a senior PNA official said Wednesday.

"UNESCO should intervene and investigate these measures, mainly digging tunnels under al-Aqsa Mosque," said PNA Foreign Affairs Minister Reyad al-Malki in a radio interview.

JERUSALEM, October 8, 2013 – More than half the land in the West Bank, much of it agricultural and resource rich, is inaccessible to Palestinians. The first comprehensive study of the potential impact of this ‘restricted land,’ released by the World Bank today, sets the current loss to the Palestinian economy at about US$3.4 billion.

Area C constitutes 61 percent of the West Bank and is the only contiguous land connecting 227 smaller separate and heavily residential areas. The 1993 Oslo Peace Accords stipulated that Area C be gradually transferred to the Palestinian Authority (PA) by 1998. This transfer has never taken place.g

JERUSALEM — Israel’s population registry lists a slew of “nationalities” and ethnicities, among them Jew, Arab, Druse and more. But one word is conspicuously absent from the list: Israeli.

Residents cannot identify themselves as Israelis in the national registry because the move could have far-reaching consequences for the country’s Jewish character, the Israeli Supreme Court wrote in documents obtained Thursday.

The following statement by the Middle East Quartet (United Nations, Russian Federation, United States, European Union) was issued on 27 September:


Representatives of the Quartet — United Nations Secretary-General Ban Kimoon, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, United States Secretary of State John Kerry, High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy of the European Union Catherine Ashton — met in New York on 27 September. They were joined by Quartet Representative Tony Blair and by Israeli chief negotiator Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat.