PressTV

The UN special coordinator for the so-called Middle East peace process has accused a key Israeli party in the ruling coalition of "killing hope" for peace.

"The determination of some ministers in Israel to block progress and kill hope by promoting illegal settlements and rejecting a Palestinian state is concerning," Nickolay Mladenov said in a statement on Wednesday.

This came after a minister from the Jewish Home party in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet announced that his party, which leads several ministries, would not support the so-called two-state solution.

Minister of Judiciary Affairs Ayelet Shaked said on Tuesday that “there will be no Palestinian state, there will be no settlement evacuations and we will not give any land to our enemies” as long as we are in power. 

The last round of the so-called peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians collapsed in 2014. Tel Aviv’s illegal settlement activities and its refusal to release senior Palestinian prisoners were among major reasons behind the failure of the talks.

Tel Aviv formally suspended the talks with the Palestinian Authority on April 24, 2014, after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas forged a unity pact with the Hamas resistance movement, which is based in the blockaded Gaza Strip.

Israel responded to the unity pact by announcing tenders for the building of 4,800 illegal settler units on the occupied Palestinian territories.

Palestinians are seeking to create an independent state on the territories of the West Bank, East al-Quds (Jerusalem), and the Gaza Strip and are demanding that Israel withdraw from the occupied Palestinian territories.

Israel, however, has refused to return to the 1967 borders and is unwilling to discuss the issue of al-Quds.

Meanwhile, ministers from about 30 countries and international organizations are due to take part in a French-led peace initiative in Paris on June 3 to discuss a potential action plan.