The surge of new building in the administered territories continues. As Europe prepares severe declarations condemning approval of construction in Jerusalem's Ramat Shlomo neighborhood, Israel's Ministry of Housing and Construction will in the next few days publish tenders for the construction of thousands of new housing units in Karnei Shomron, Givat Zeev, and Efrat.
These are tenders for construction and not planning and the homes that will be built are part of the 3,000 homes approved in response to the unilateral Palestinian move to upgrade the Palestinian Authority presence at the UN to observer status as a state.
Peace Now announced that it will ask the Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein to cancel the decision on the grounds that the current administration is a transition government.
Yesterday evening European diplomats told AP that Germany, France, the UK and Portugal, the European members of the UN Security Council, expressed concern that construction in the Jerusalem region will threaten the likelihood of Israelis and Palestinians ever reaching a two-state solution. The belief in Europe is that the four countries are in the final stages of formulating a condemnation on the matter.
At the beginning of December, there was a harsh diplomatic assault on Israel following approval of construction in E-1 between Maaleh Adumim and Jerusalem with Israeli Ambassadors in Europe, Australia and Brazil summoned to receive reprimands.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on December 19, 2012
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