(JTA) — Israel reportedly okayed the construction of 3,000 new housing units, some of them in the West Bank.
Army Radio quoted an unnamed “senior diplomatic source” as saying that some of the units would be built in Jerusalem and some in the West Bank. The report did not say whether new units would be constructed in eastern Jerusalem, which the U.S. and the European Union consider occupied land, or elsewhere in the city.
According to NRG, the website of the daily Ma’ariv, some of the houses will be built in the E1 corridor which connect Jerusalem to the settlement of Ma’aleh Adumim. Israel has refrained from building there because of international pressure, the paper’s diplomatic correspondent, Eli Bardenstein, wrote.
Successive U.S. administrations hve said the corridor is critical to maintain contiguity in any future Palestinian state.
The reports did not say if the decision to authorize the construction of the new units came in response to the vote at the United Nations on Thursday to upgrade the status of the Palestinian Authority to a “non-member state observer.”
The news site Ynet reported the decision to build new houses was made on Thursday at a meeting attended by nine senior cabinet ministers.
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