Definition: In this task, you are given a text of many news articles seperated by special token "|||||". Your task is to summarize them.
Input: Image caption Almost 500,000 Jews already live in settlements on occupied territory 
  
 Israel says it will speed up Jewish settlement construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem - and temporarily freeze the transfer of funds to the Palestinian Authority. 
  
 The announcement comes a day after the Palestinians won full membership of the UN cultural organisation, Unesco. 
  
 Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas says the move will speed up the destruction of the peace process. 
  
 The Israeli government has described the Unesco vote as a "tragedy". 
  
 A spokesman for the Israeli foreign ministry, Yigal Palmor, told the BBC the measures were designed to increase pressure on the Palestinians. 
  
 Mr Palmor said they were "a response to unilateral measures aimed at confronting Israel at the UN and elsewhere on the international scene". 
  
 "They [the Palestinians] shouldn't be wasting time by all these manoeuvres. They should continue to negotiate," he said. 
  
 The Israeli government said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had called for the accelerated construction of about 2,000 housing units. 
  
 It said the construction will be in "areas that in any future arrangement will remain in Israel's hands", according to a statement quoted by Reuters news agency. 
  
 The BBC's Kevin Connolly in Jerusalem says the announcement will be seen as a punishment for the Palestinians and a warning to countries that backed their Unesco bid that Israel will react strongly if a similar application for Palestinian membership of the UN itself should prove successful. 
  
 Peace talks between the Palestinians and Israel broke down more than a year ago. The Palestinians are demanding an end to settlement building. 
  
 Almost 500,000 Jews live in settlements on occupied territory. The settlements are illegal under international law, although Israel disputes this. 
  
 'Stealing money' 
  
 The Palestinian presidency said the decision to speed up settlement construction amounted to a decision to "speed up the destruction of the peace process". 
  
 Image caption Unesco is the first UN agency the Palestinians have sought to join since submitting their recognition bid. 
  
 Nabil Abu Rudeina, the spokesman for Mr Abbas, said the decision to withhold funds collected by Israel on behalf of the Palestinian Authority was "stealing money from the Palestinian people." 
  
 It will be the second time this year that Israel has withheld the revenues it collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority. 
  
 The money, which include duties on goods being imported to the Palestinian territories, amounts to about $100m each month - half of the PA's domestic revenue base. 
  
 Israel withheld the revenues earlier this year after Mr Abbas concluded a reconciliation agreement with Hamas, the Islamist group that controls Gaza. 
  
 The United States announced it was cancelling funding for the UN cultural body Unesco after it voted on Monday to grant full membership to the Palestinians. 
  
 Membership dues paid by the US account for about a fifth of the organisation's annual budget. 
  
 Unesco is the first UN agency the Palestinians have sought to join since submitting their bid for recognition to the Security Council in September. 
  
 The UN Security Council will vote later this month on whether to grant the Palestinians full UN membership. ||||| Posted Tuesday, November 1st, 2011 at 4:10 pm 
  
 Israel's prime minister has ordered the building of 2,000 new housing units in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, one day after UNESCO recognized the Palestinian Authority's political status and granted it full membership. 
  
 Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Tuesday said the accelerated construction includes settlements he believes would remain in Israel following any future peace accord. 
  
 A senior Israeli official said 1,650 of the new homes would be in East Jerusalem. The rest will be in Efrat and Maale Adumin, Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank. 
  
 The official also said the Israeli Cabinet had decided to temporarily halt money transfers to the Palestinian Authority. He acknowledged the moves were a punitive response to what he called recent unilateral actions by the Palestinians. 
  
 Reuters quotes a spokesman for the Palestinian presidency as saying the planned settlement building amounts to speeding up “the destruction of the peace process.” He also described Israel's decision to temporarily halt fund transfers as “inhumane.” 
  
 Earlier Tuesday, Palestinian officials said they will follow up their victory in gaining recognition by the U.N. cultural agency with applications for membership in 16 other U.N. organizations. 
  
 Members of the Palestinian U.N. delegation in Geneva said UNESCO's vote approving Palestinian membership has “opened the door” to similar bids at other U.N. agencies based in the Swiss city. 
  
 The officials said they are studying requirements for accession to the agencies but did not name them or say when they plan to submit membership applications. 
  
 The United States criticized UNESCO's move as “premature,” saying it undermines the international community's goal of a comprehensive Middle East peace plan. 
  
 Washington also suspended a $60 million contribution to the agency planned for this month because of a longstanding U.S. law that prohibits American support for any U.N. body that admits Palestine as a full member. 
  
 UNESCO draws nearly a quarter of its funding from the United States. It is the first U.N. agency the Palestinians have sought to join since President Mahmoud Abbas applied to the United Nations for full membership of an independent Palestine in September. 
  
 In another development, Palestinian communications minister Mashour Abu Daqqa says hackers disrupted Palestinian Internet services throughout the West Bank and Gaza on Tuesday. Daqqa says “all” Palestinian IP addresses were exposed to the coordinated attack, which he believes had the support of a 
  
 foreign government. |||||
Output:
Palestine's membership in UNESCO has met a fierce response from Israel. A day after Palestine joined the United Nations' cultural body, Israel ordered the accelerated construction of 2,000 new homes in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. In what officials acknowledge is punishment for "unilateral actions," Israel has also temporarily frozen funds that it has collected on behalf of the Palestinian Authority, Voice of America reports. Palestinian officials branded the move to rush settlement construction a decision to "speed up the destruction of the peace process," and accused Israel of "stealing money from the Palestinian people" by withholding revenue, the BBC reports. The US has cut off funding to UNESCO because of its decision to admit Palestine. Palestinian officials say they plan to apply for membership in 16 other United Nations bodies.