Palestinians seek UN act on Israeli reprisal

The Palestinian Authority on Thursday called on the UN Security Council to condemn Israeli reprisal actions set in motion after Unesco voted to accept the Palestinians as full members.
Palestinian ambassador to the UN, Riyad Mansour, met the Security Council president just ahead of a meeting of a committee considering the Palestinian application for full membership of the United Nations.
Mansour said he demanded "action by the Security Council against this Israeli provocation, and to bring it to an immediate end, and to release our tax money."
After Monday's vote at Unesco, Israel approved the construction of another 2,000 housing units in the occupied territories and halted the payment of VAT and customs duties on goods for the Palestinian territories that pass through Israel.
Mansour called the freezing of tax payments the "illegal hijacking" of Palestinian money.
The Security Council's membership committee met to discuss the application for membership made by Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas on September 23.
Israel and the United States strongly oppose the Palestinian bid. They say a Palestinian state can only be set up after a deal is reached in direct Palestinian-Israeli talks.