The High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, denounced on Friday 28 February, the announcement by Israeli authorities regarding construction plans for 3401 new building units in Area E1, located east of Jerusalem, in the “occupied West Bank”.
This announcement comes just before the Israeli legislative elections on 2 March and only a few days after the announcement on new settlement constructions in the Giv'at Hamatos and Har Homa neighbourhoods south of Jerusalem, for which tenders were published this week (see EUROPE 12432/15).
“Settlement construction in these areas will cut the geographic and territorial contiguity between East-Jerusalem and the West Bank. Construction in E1 will sever the connection between the Northern and Southern West Bank”, Borrell said in a statement. He once more called on the Hebrew state to “halt settlement construction”, which is illegal under international law, to ”suspend the publication of tenders and to refrain from any measures aimed at the advancement of such construction projects”.
The High Representative also called on Israelis and Palestinians to engage in a dialogue and to refrain from any unilateral action that undermines the viability of the two-state solution. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)