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EU seeking Israel clarification on new settlement homes

27 October 2014, 18:50 CET

(BRUSSELS) - The EU said Monday it was seeking Israeli clarification of reports it planned to build another 1,000 homes in annexed east Jerusalem, voicing new concern about the peace process.

If the reports are confirmed, "it will call once again into serious question Israel's commitment to a negotiated solution with the Palestinians," a spokeswoman for EU foreign affairs head Catherine Ashton said.

The European Union could only "condemn such an ill-judged and ill-timed decision" if the plans went ahead, spokeswoman Maja Kocijancic said.

"We stress that the future development of relations between the EU and Israel will depend on (its) engagement towards a lasting peace based on a two-state solution."

Earlier this month, the EU condemned as "highly detrimental" similar Israeli plans for more than 2,600 settler homes, calling for them to be reversed as a matter of urgency.

Reports Monday citing an unnamed official in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said the Israeli government had approved plans for another 1,000 new Jewish settler homes.

The reports followed fresh outbreaks of violence in mainly Arab east Jerusalem, where Israeli police have clashed with Palestinian protesters for several days.

Jibril Rajoub, a senior member of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah movement, warned the move could spark an "explosion."

Israel's settlement building in the occupied West Bank and annexed east Jerusalem, which is illegal under international law, has caused the breakdown of several rounds of peace talks supported by the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations.


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