The Al Azhar Institute in Cairo, the most important Islamic religious institution in the Sunni Muslim world, on Thursday condemned Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's announcement regarding plans to build 3,500 new housing units east of Jerusalem.
The Institute said in a statement that construction in the "occupied West Bank" is a blatant attack on occupied Palestinian land and a provocation against the feelings of Palestinians - both Muslim and Christian.
The Al-Azhar Institute also noted that this Israeli decision was made as part of its policy of establishing facts on the ground that will not change the fact that the land is "Arab" and that the “Israeli occupation” is based on the plundering of land of a different nation which owns it.
The Al-Azhar Institute called on the international community to act as soon as possible to halt Israel's escalating policy that complicates the existing situation and which contravenes UN Security Council resolutions and international law.
Netanyahu announced earlier this week that Israel build new homes in the E1 area, near Maaleh Adumim.
The announcement sparked an uproar in the Palestinian Authority (PA), where spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh condemned the announcement and said it is the result of “the biased and dangerous American policy in favor of the Israeli occupation.”
On Wednesday, PA “foreign minister” Riyad al-Maliki warned that Israel's plan to build new homes in E1 would destroy the prospect of a two-state solution.