PA to end agreements with Israel over housing demolition

July 26 (UPI) -- Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has said he will end all signed agreements with Israel after the government started destroying 10 Palestinian housing in East Jerusalem this week.

The decision is the latest heightening of tensions between the Palestinian Authority and Israel after the United States moved its embassy to Jerusalem and recognized the entire city as the capital of Israel.

Abbas said late Thursday Palestinian leadership met in Ramallah while the Israeli government moved forward with the destruction of the buildings. Israeli officials said they are toppling the buildings because they're too close to the West Bank separation barrier, creating a security risk.

"We will not succumb to the dictates and the imposing of a fait accompli on the ground with brute force, specifically in Jerusalem," Abbas said. "All that the [Israeli] occupation state is doing is illegal and void. Our hands have been and are still extended to a just, comprehensive and lasting peace."

The Israeli Supreme Court opened the door to the demolitions in May, after a year of legal wrangling. The buildings contained about 72 units.

Abbas called Israel's withholding of tax funds from Palestinians "piracy" and likened its treatment to the apartheid system that kept the races separated in South Africa until 1993. Israel is holding $138 million in Palestinian tax funds over concern they could be given to those convicted of terrorist activities and their families.

"The Israeli occupation authority has decided to ignore all its obligations in accordance with the agreements signed with it," Abbas said. "It continues to kill Palestinian citizens, arrest them, demolish their houses and confiscate their lands.

"An apartheid system is imposed, which the whole world has rejected it. This apartheid, which ended 30 years ago from all over the world, remains here supervised by America. And finally the piracy of Palestinian funds."