The international community should rally efforts to prod Israel into halting its non-stop settlement activities in the West Bank, especially East Jerusalem, which threaten ongoing peace efforts, Egypt's People's Assembly Speaker Ahmed Fathi Sorour said Friday.Israel should withdraw to 1967 borders in order to establish an independent Palestinian state, he said while addressing a meeting of the Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly (EMPA) on supporting the Palestinian-Israeli peace process.
Sorour said starting negotiations on borders of a Palestinian state will settle three main issues; Jerusalem, settlements and water.
The Palestinian issue has become a humanitarian case, Sorour said referring to the pictures of children, women and elderly people captured in the Palestinian territories which the world cannot bear any more, especially under human rights calls.
Sorour stressed the Palestinian refugees' right to return to their homeland under international law and UN resolutions.
He noted that the Arab Peace Initiative has called for a fair solution to the Palestinian refugees issue in line with the UN General Assembly Resolution No. 194.
