Israel to invite bids to build 1,000 settler homes
JERUSALEM, Aug 11, 2013 (AFP) - Israel said Sunday it would issue tenders for 1,000 new settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem and Palestinians called this proof Israel is “not serious” about peace talks.
“Tenders will be published” later in the day for 793 units to be built in annexed east Jerusalem and 394 elsewhere in the West Bank, the housing ministry said in a statement, three days ahead of a new round of Palestinian-Israeli negotiations. Housing Minister Uri Ariel, of the far-right Jewish Home party, dismissed international criticism of settlement building on occupied Palestinian land as illegal and an obstacle to peace.
“No country in the world accepts diktats from other countries
“Tenders will be published” later in the day for 793 units to be built in annexed east Jerusalem and 394 elsewhere in the West Bank
on where it is allowed to build or not,” he said in the statement.
“We shall continue to market apartments and build throughout the country.”The housing ministry said plots would be offered in Har Homa and Gilo, both on east Jeru- salem's southern outskirts and in Pisgat Zeev, on the city's northern edge. Tenders would also be issued for settler homes to be built in Ariel, in the northern West Bank, in Maaleh Adumim, east of Jerusalem, and in Efrata and Beitar Ilit, around Bethlehem, it said.
The US State Department said last week that Israeli and Palestinian negotiators would resume talks in Jerusalem on Wednesday on ending their long-standing conflict.