TEL-AVIV, November 30 (RIA Novosti) - The Israeli authorities have approved the construction of 3,000 housing units beyond the 1967 borders on Friday, less than a day after the UN recognized the Palestinian authority as a non-member state, the Ynet news portal said.
The upgrade of the Palestinian status in the UN amounts to an implicit recognition of the Palestinian statehood and increases PA’s chances of joining other UN bodies. It also allows the PA to challenge the continuing construction of Israeli settlements on the occupied Palestinian land in the International Criminal Court.
“The government's top nine ministers respond [to the Palestinian Authority’s status upgrade bid] by approving construction of new housing units in Jerusalem, West Bank,” the portal said.
In addition, Israeli authorities also intend to further the construction plans for thousands of additional housing units beyond the 1967 border.
The plans include construction in the segment connecting the Jewish settlement of Ma'ale Adumim with Jerusalem, which is likely to attract harsh international criticism as an attempt to prevent territorial continuity within the future Palestinian state.
The Israeli settlement construction in the occupied Palestinian territories is the main obstacle for the resumption of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, which has been stalled for more than a year.
The Palestinians are seeking to create an independent state on the territories of West Bank, East Jerusalem, partially occupied by Israel, and the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip and want Israel to pull from the Palestinian territories occupied after the 1967 war.
Israel, however, has refused to return to the 1967 borders and is unwilling to raise the issue of Jerusalem, which it says is the indivisible capital of the Jewish state.
