News Brief

(IsraelNN.com) Senior Palestinian Authority negotiator Saeb Erekat said Monday that he had asked the United States to pressure Israel to drop plans to build 2,000 new housing units in Judea, Samaria, and Jewish neighborhoods of Jerusalem.  Erekat accused Israel of “humiliating” PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas by planning to build in Jewish Jerusalem.

Most of the housing units in question would be built in the Jerusalem neighborhoods of Pisgat Zeev, Givat Zeev, and Har Homa, all of which are built in areas that were controlled by Jordan between 1948 and 1967 and that the PA now claims as part of its future capital city.  The neighborhoods were officially annexed to Israel decades ago.