A new construction site in the East Jerusalem settlement site of Gilo, where 1,100 new homes are to be built. Photograph: Menahem Kahana/AFP/Getty Images
Israeli authorities approved in principle the construction of 1,100 homes in an East Jerusalem settlement on Tuesday, putting at risk international efforts to persuade Israeli and Palestinian negotiators to return to talks.
Lady Ashton, the EU's foreign policy chief, swiftly called for the plan to be reversed, saying settlement expansion "threatens the viability of an agreed two-state solution".
The expansion of Gilo, a settlement built across the Green Line, was authorised by a Jerusalem planning committee and would be subject to public consultation before final approval. The plan was condemned by the Palestinian Authority. In reference to its efforts to get recognition of a Palestinian state, the authority stated that the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, had said "there should be no unilateral steps – but there could be nothing more unilateral than a huge, new, round of settlement building on Palestinian land".
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