Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Monday gave orders to advance plans for the construction of 1060 new illegal housing units in East Jerusalem.
New housing units are set to be constructed in two settlements in East Jerusalem; 660 new units in ‘Ramot Shlomo’, and 400 in ‘Har Homa’, in addition to an infrastructure project of opening 12 new settlement roads in the West Bank.
Earlier this month, the Israeli government approved the building of 2600 new settlement units in East Jerusalem, a move that was criticized by the US which stated that the plan will ‘poison the atmosphere’.
The US criticism was rejected by Netanyahu who said that it is “against American values.”
Meanwhile, PLO Executive Committee member, Hanan Ashrawi, condemned Netanyahu’s announcement, saying it “exposes the true nature of this blatantly racist and extremist Israeli coalition.”
Netanyahu is interested in forging ties with extremist and violent settlers at the expense of the two-state solution and Palestinian human rights, Ashrawi concluded.
She said that “failure to put an end to Israeli violations will push the already unstable region into more “violence, chaos and instability.”