U.S. Unhappy About New East Jerusalem Housing

By Natasha Mozgovaya (Haaretz) August 9, 2011

The United States said Tuesday it is “deeply concerned” by Israel’s approval of new housing construction in East Jerusalem.

The State Department said in a statement that such “unilateral actions work against efforts to resume direct negotiations and contradict the logic of a reasonable and necessary agreement between the parties.” The department also said it raised its objections with the Israeli government.

Last week, an Israeli planning commission approved 930 new housing units in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Har Homa, which is within what is defined as Jerusalem’s city limits, but is directly adjacent to the Palestinian town of Bethlehem. Actual building is at least two years off.

For more, see Haaretz.com

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