The Trump administration has issued a condemnation of an Israeli plan to approve thousands of new homes for Jews in the West Bank, saying the government’s decision is “the last thing that the people of Israel and the State of Palestine need right now.”
The U.S. State Department and European Union have both cited the plan as an obstacle to peace in the Middle East. The EU’s foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, noted that the building would bring “constant tension.”
This week, the Israeli government plans to implement a new “settlement freeze” to buy time for politicians and settler leaders to figure out a way to pass the project through parliament. The law would allow the settlement of Efrat in the West Bank, which is near Jerusalem, to construct thousands of new units by approving plans already put forward by residents. The U.S. ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, said he supported the law because he has grown up with Israeli people there and that there was an easy way to dismantle existing settlements and put up new homes.
“It’s so simple and elegant and needed,” Friedman said in an interview with the Jerusalem Post.
He reportedly learned about the law’s existence when the Post brought up it in a question-and-answer session.