The international furor over construction of 307 housing units in the southern Jerusalem neighborhood of Har Homa was set off unintentionally by two low-level bureaucrats who signed the tender for the project last week.

The two Housing Ministry workers, Dubi Gal and Sarah Zimmerman, had no idea their signatures on a decades-long pending tender would cause such a ruckus, said the official. "In past years," said the source, "Zimmerman was even accused of delaying issuing of the construction permits. As far as they were concerned it was just another tender."