BRUSSELS (EJP)---European Union's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton deplored Tuesday Israel's decision to advance settlement construction in East Jerusalem with approximately 1000 new housing units in the Gilo neighborhood.
She called on the Israeli authorities “to reverse this plan.”
"Last Friday, the Quartet called on the Israelis and Palestinians to refrain from provocative actions if negotiations are to resume and be effective, and reiterated the obligations of both parties under the Roadmap," she said in a statement.
She continued, "the EU has repeatedly called on Israel to end all settlement activity, including natural growth, and to dismantle outposts erected since March 2001."
"Settlement activity threatens the viability of an agreed two-state solution and raises questions about Israel's stated commitment to resume negotiations," Ashton added.
Addressing the European Parliament in, Strasbourg later on Tuesday during a debate on the demand for UN recognition of a Palestinian state, Catherine Ashton said that she heard "with deep regret" that Israeli settlement plans were continuing and planned to take up the issue again with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when she next meets him.
"He should stop announcing them and, more importantly, stop building them," she told MEPs in Strasbourg, France.
In an interview published Tuesday by The Jerusalem Post on the occasion of Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, Netanyahu said Israel won’t renew a settlement freeze to get the Palestinians to agree to the Quartet’s formula for a renewal of talks.
Netanyahu said that by coming back to the issue of settlement freeze, the Palestinians were indicating that they didn’t really want to negotiate. “It is a pretext they use again and again, but I think a lot of people seet it as a ruse to avoid direct negotiations."
The Israeli Prime Minister said: "We build in Jewish neighborhoods, the Arabs build in Arab neighborhoods, that is the way the life of this city goes on and develops for its Jewish and non-Jewish fresidents alike."
Ashton said there was little hope any of the people moving into the proposed settlements would ever be able to live a full life there.
"It is wrong to get people to live in a place which, when you look at a negotiated settlement, they will probably have to move from. Actually, that doesn't make any sense to me," she told the European Parliament.
During Tuesday's debate, several members of the European Parliament voiced support for Palestinian President Abbas's request, at the United Nations last Friday, for recognition of a state of Palestine.
But the EUhas appeared split on the issue.
Some MEPs underlined that Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations should resume and the EU should speak with one voice on Middle East issues.
"It's a mistake for some EU member states to believe that it has to be a choice between membership of the UN and negotiations," said Irish Socialist MEP Proinsias De Rossa, who heads the delegation for relations with the Palestinian Legislative Council.
For Bastiaan Belder, a Dutch MEP who chairs delegation for relations with Israel, the Israel Delegation, Abbas "took a unilateral step, not backed by the whole Palestinian people.” “It is a propaganda offensive by the Palestinian Authority that is in my view entirely weak and divided."
"The EU signed the Oslo agreements, which clearly said that there should not be any unilateral step by any party," he said.
"The EU should stick to its position and to the negotiation table, and unambiguously call on the Palestinians to sit down with the Israelis," Belder added.
The Parliament is to vote on Thursday a resolution on this issue.