JERUSALEM: Israel revealed plans yesterday to build 3,000 settler homes in east Jerusalem and the West Bank in response to the Palestinians’ historic success at the United Nations.
Reports of the decision to build the 3,000 housing units in response to the UN vote emerged yesterday afternoon, with an official source confirming it. “It’s true,” he said, without specifying exactly where.
Media reports said some of the construction would be in a highly contentious area of the West Bank known as E1, a corridor that runs between the easternmost edge of annexed Jerusalem and the Maaleh Adumim settlement.
Palestinians bitterly oppose the E1 project, as it effectively cuts the occupied West Bank in two north to south and makes the creation of a viable Palestinian state highly problematic.
The Palestinians want annexed east Jerusalem as capital of their promised, future state and vigorously oppose expansion plans for Maaleh Adumim, which lies 5km from the city’s eastern edge.
A report on the Ynet news website said the decision to connect Maaleh Adumim with Jerusalem had been taken by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s inner circle, the Forum of Nine, on Thursday.
The decision to build more settler homes was roundly denounced by Peace Now, Israel’s settlement watchdog. “Instead of punishing the Palestinians, this government is punishing Israel by making peace harder to achieve and showing that Israel does not want peace,” said Hagit Ofran. “That is very dangerous.”
Arab east Jerusalem was captured by Israel with the rest of the West Bank in the 1967 Six Day War and later annexed in a move not recognised by the international community. Israel considers all of Jerusalem as its “eternal, indivisible” capital, and does not view construction in the eastern sector to be settlement activity. AFP
