Palestinians ask for Quartet intervention

RAMALLAH, West Bank, Dec. 2 (UPI) -- Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat urged the Middle East Peace Quartet Thursday to ensure Israeli settlement expansion does not undermine Palestinian elections.

Erakat asked for "serious and concerted actions" by the Quartet -- the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia.

In a press release the Palestine Liberation Organization's Negotiation Department said this action came after Israel reportedly approved a revised route for its wall -- which Israel calls a fence and the United Nations has labeled a barrier -- in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

Erakat deemed the modifications "minor," noting that (1) changes do not apply to sections of the wall already built within the northern and central West Bank; and (2) they do not take into account projected land confiscations resulting from additional walls around individual Israeli settlement blocs.

Erakat said the wall "will continue to impose severe hardships on Palestinians by separating them from their land and destroying their livelihoods. Moreover, so long as the wall is routed inside Occupied Palestinian Territory, rather than on the only acceptable route along the Green Line, it remains in violation of international law and a clear impediment to the emergence of a viable Palestinian state."

On July 9, the International Court of Justice affirmed that all portions of the wall built within Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, are illegal and must be dismantled.