CAIRO, May 15: The Arab League on Tuesday called on the international community to press Israel to halt its plans for settlement expansion in occupied Arab east Jerusalem.

The 22-member body par-

ticularly urged the members of the Quartet for Middle East peace —the United Nations, the United States, the European Union and Russia — to “take responsibility and stop this new Israeli crime.” The plan, which foresees the construction of more than 20,000 housing units, has been drawn up by a municipal committee and must still be approved by national authorities.

The project is a “continuation of Israel's politics of colonisation and an attempt to turn facts around and impose a one-sided reality,” the Cairo-based body said in a statement.

Palestinians are determined to make east Jerusalem the capital of their promised future state, but the League accused Israel of pushing forward the expansion “in order to avoid negotiations on the final status” of Jerusalem.

On Friday, UN chief Ban Ki-moon expressed his “concern” over the project.

“A halt to settlement expansion is one of the basic obligations” in the Quartet’s so-called roadmap for peace, Ban's spokeswoman Michele Montas said, refering to a 2003 plan aimed at creating a Palestinian state living side by side with Israel.

“Furthermore east Jerusalem is occupied territory, and its ultimate status is subject to negotiations between the parties,” Montas noted.

Israel conquered east Jerusalem in the 1967 war and later annexed it.

A dozen new neighbourhoods have since been built there and house more than 200,000 Israelis. Another 245,000 Palestinians live in that part of the city.

—AFP