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.

Israel announced the new plans after the U.N. last week recognized a state of Palestine in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem — lands Israel occupied in 1967 — as a non-member observer.

The plans include 3,000 more homes for Jews in the West Bankand east Jerusalem, as well as preparations for construction of an especially sensitive project near Jerusalem, known as E-1.

Separately, Israel is moving forward with two major settlement projects in east Jerusalem. Israel would build more than 4,200 apartments in the two areas, Ramat Shlomo and Givat Hamatos.

Israeli settlement construction lies at the heart of a four-year breakdown in peace talks, and was a major factor behind the Palestinians' U.N. statehood bid. Since 1967, half a million Israelis have settled in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.

The Israeli plans for Jerusalem and nearby West Bank areas "are the most dangerous in the history of settlement expansion and apartheid," Abbas and senior members of the PLO and his Fatah movement said in a statement after a meeting Tuesday evening.

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.

The Palestinians say E-1 and Givat Hamatos are particularly problematic because they would cut off east Jerusalem, the intended Palestinian capital, from the rest of the West Bank.

Israel's plans for E-1 and Givat Hamatos "will leave us with no peace process," Saeb Erekat, a senior Abbas aide, told The Associated Press.

He later told Israel TV that "it's over" if these two settlements are built.

"Don't talk about peace, don't talk about a two-state solution ... talk about a one-state reality between the River Jordan and the Mediterranean," Erekat said, referring to the land that the international community hopes will one day accommodate both Israel and a Palestinian state.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague sounded a similar warning Tuesday, telling Britain's parliament that Israel's building plans would make a Palestinian state alongside Israel "almost inconceivable."

Eight countries, Britain among them, summoned local Israeli ambassadors in protest since Monday, and Hague said there could be further diplomatic steps if building continues.

Some Palestinian officials have raised the possibility of asking the European Union to reconsider its trade agreements with Israel, but Hague said he did not think Europe is ready for economic sanctions against Israel.

Israel has rebuffed the international criticism, which put it at odds with some of its strongest foreign allies, including Australia.

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Tuesday that construction plans would move forward, particularly in east Jerusalem and nearby West Bank settlements. "Israel makes decisions according to its national interests, and not in order to punish, fight or confront," he said.

U.N. recognition could enable the Palestinians to gain access to the International Criminal Court and seek war crimes charges against Israel for construction of settlements on occupied lands.

Last week, before Israel's announcement of the new settlement plans, Abbas said that he's not turning to the ICC "unless we were attacked," and Palestinian officials portrayed an appeal to the court as a step of last resort.

However, Abbas said Tuesday that "no one can keep quiet about the issue of settlement in E-1," adding that if Israel keeps building, "it definitely does not want to reach a peace agreement."

Actual construction in E-1 would be years away even if the planning process is pushed ahead now.

The Palestinian representative to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour, wrote to the U.N. chief and the heads of the Security Council and the General Assembly late Monday that Israel's construction constitutes a war crime.

The letter made no mention of possible ICC action, which in any case would first require a series of steps by the Palestinians and the court.

A Palestinian case at the ICC could also expose Abbas' main Palestinian rival, the Islamic militant Hamas, to possible war crimes charges for its indiscriminate rocket fire from Gaza on Israel.

Hanan Ashrawi, a senior PLO official, said the Palestinians were encouraged by the recent diplomatic sanctions against Israel, but that the international community must go further.

Among other steps, she said the European Union should reconsider its association agreement with Israel that grants the Jewish state considerable trade benefits. She said the EU should also take harsher measures against products from Israeli settlements.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The Palestinians said the U.N. General Assembly will vote Thursday afternoon on a resolution raising their status at the United Nations from an observer to a nonmember observer state, a move they believe is an important step toward a two-state solution with Israel.

Unlike the Security Council, there are no vetoes in the General Assembly and the resolution is virtually certain of approval. The world body is dominated by countries sympathetic to the Palestinian cause and the resolution only requires a majority vote for approval. To date, 132 countries — over two-thirds of the U.N. member states — have recognized the state of Palestine.

A spokesman for the Permanent Observer Mission of Palestine to the United Nations said Monday that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will address the 193-member world body before the resolution is put to a vote. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press about the matter.

The Palestinians are seeking to enhance their status because their application in September 2011 to become a full U.N. member state has been blocked. To become a member state, an applicant must be approved by the U.N. Security Council and the United States has made clear it would veto the bid until there is a final settlement with Israel.

Israel and the United States are also on record opposing the move for enhanced status, saying the Palestinians should first negotiate their statehood with the Jewish state, not take unilateral action and sidestep talks.

"We do not think that this step is going to bring the Palestinian people any closer to a state," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters Monday in Washington.

"We think it is a mistake" she said. "We oppose it."

Nuland said the U.S. was continuing to make its case with other countries who will cast their votes.

The Palestinians believe their upgraded status would add weight to their claims for a state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, territories captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war. Israel pulled out of Gaza in 2005.

The Palestinians also hope to use their upgraded status to join additional U.N. bodies, such as the International Criminal Court, where they could attempt to prosecute Israel.

At the same time, they have expressed fear of financial and diplomatic retaliation.

Following last year's move by the Palestinians to join the U.N. cultural agency UNESCO, the United States withheld funds from the organization, which amount to 22 percent of its budget. The U.S. also withheld money to the Palestinians, and the U.S. Congress has threatened similar sanctions if the Palestinians proceed to improve their status at the U.N. again.

Israel also retaliated by accelerating settlement construction and withholding funds from the Palestinian government.

The latest draft resolution, obtained by The Associated Press, would have the General Assembly decide "to accord to Palestine Nonmember Observer State status in the United Nations, without prejudice to the acquired rights, privileges and role of the Palestine Liberation Organization in the United Nations as the representative of the Palestinian people, in accordance with the relevant resolutions and practice."

It "reaffirms the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination and to independence in their State of Palestine on the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967."

The draft also expresses "the urgent need for the resumption and acceleration of negotiations within the Middle East peace process" to achieve "a just, lasting and comprehensive peace settlement between the Palestinian and Israeli sides that resolves all outstanding core issues, namely the Palestine refugees, Jerusalem, settlements, borders, security and water." It drops "prisoners" as a core issue.

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Associated Press Writer Bradley Klapper contributed to this report from Washington.