The EU said Monday it was seeking clarification from Israel of reports it planned to build another 1,000 homes in Jerusalem, threatening once again to sever ties with the Jewish state if it failed to follow the bloc's plan for the Middle East, Agence France Presse reported.
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, Ashton’s 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."
Reports Monday citing an unnamed official in Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's office said the Israeli government had approved plans for another 1,000 new homes in Har Homa, in the southeast of Jerusalem, and in Ramat Shlomo, in the northeast corner of the Israeli capital.
Netanyahu will also push new infrastructure projects in the West Bank, including roads that will also serve the Palestinian population, said a Prime Minister Office source quoted by The Times of Israel.
Netanyahu’s new Jerusalem building plans come ahead of a meeting Tuesday in which the regional planning committee for Jerusalem is expected to approve 1,600 new apartments in Ramat Shlomo as part of an earlier plan that was temporarily halted at the request of the US after its announcement sparked a major controversy following the UN General Assembly’s recognition of Palestine as an independent state in 2012.