ISRAEL PLANS NEW HOMES IN EASTERN JERUSALEM

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced plans Thursday to build thousands of new housing units in contested East Jerusalem, which critics say could doom any prospect of a deal with the Palestinians.

It is likely to be years before any of the 6,200 units would be built, but the announcement, 11 days before a national election, was widely seen as an effort by Netanyahu to solidify support among his right-wing base.

The homes are slated for two areas in East Jerusalem, which was captured by Israel from Jordan in the 1967 war and has been long demanded by Palestinians as the capital of a future independent state. Israel unilaterally annexed the area as part of its capital, a move not recognized by most countries but endorsed by President Donald Trump’s Middle East plan.

“We are joining up all the parts of unified Jerusalem,” Netanyahu announced in a video shot against the backdrop of Har Homa, one of the two neighborhoods where the new homes will be built.

Netanyahu said his office would soon begin the bidding process for the construction of 1,000 of the new units in the other neighborhood, Givat Hamatos, jumpstarting development in an area where nothing has been built for years because of international pressure.

Netanyahu said he had now “removed all the limitations.”

Supporters of the twostate solution to the Israelipalestinian conflict have long warned that construction in Givat Hamatos would choke off the last open area connecting East Jerusalem with the Palestinian city of Bethlehem and the southern West Bank.

The veteran Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat condemned the move.

“Ongoing Israeli settlement announcements represent the implementation of the Trump plan, which requires urgent international action to deter both Israel and the U.S. from their continued violations of international law and order,” he said in a statement.

The plans announced by Netanyahu call for 4,000 new homes in Givat Hamatos. They would include 1,000 units for Arab residents, potentially to be built on land privately owned by Palestinians as an extension of a nearby Palestinian neighborhood, Beit Safafa.

With that, Netanyahu said he was fostering “coexistence and peace” in Jerusalem.