RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) - The Palestinians will ask the U.N. Security Council to call for an Israeli settlement freeze, President Mahmoud Abbas and his advisers decided Tuesday, as part of an escalating showdown over Israel's new plans to build thousands more homes on war-won land in and around Jerusalem.
Such construction will destroy any lingering hopes of setting up aPalestinian state, Abbas aides warned, as international anger over the settlement construction snowballed.
The Palestinians decided to ask the Security Council for a resolution censuring Israeli settlement building, even though a previous attempt in early 2011 was derailed by a U.S. veto.