Britain Condemns Israel's New West Bank Construction Plans

Stay behind the green line!

LONDON - The British government on Wednesday condemned the tenders recently issued by Israel's Housing Ministry for the construction of new housing units across the Green Line in Jerusalem and in West Bank settlements.

In the statement, Foreign Office Minister for the Middle East, Alistair Burt, describes the new tenders as "provocative." Burt said that Britain "has been consistently clear that Israeli settlements are illegal under international law and by altering the situation on the ground are making the two-state solution, with Jerusalem as a shared capital, increasingly hard to realise. It is deeply disappointing that the Government of Israel continues to ignore the appeals of the UK and other friends of Israel."

The Housing and Construction Ministry issued on Tuesday tenders for the construction of 1,285 housing units, 1,213 in the northern Jerusalem neighborhoods of Pisgat Ze'ev and Ramot, located across the 1967 Green Line, and an additional 72 in the West Bank settlement of Ariel.