UN, EU concerned over Israeli settlement activity as more settlers pour in OJ

NEW YORK, The UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, has expressed concern over the Israeli occupation authority’s (IOA) announcement that 1,300 new housing units would be built in occupied Jerusalem.

Ban’s spokesman said that the UN chief was speaking during a meeting with Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu in New York on Monday.

Ban also pointed to the importance of resuming negotiations with the Palestinians and hoped the IOA would facilitate the movement of inhabitants and goods in and out of the Gaza Strip.

For her part, the European Union’s high representative for foreign affairs Catherine Ashton asked the IOA on Tuesday to reverse its decision to build new housing units in occupied Jerusalem.

In a similar context, the Israeli TV channel 10 disclosed on Tuesday that 66 Jewish families have recently moved into Ras Al-Amod suburb in eastern occupied Jerusalem.

It noted that the secret and unpublicized step coincided with the project of housing more Jewish settlers in the suburb, who reached 250 families currently housed in seven areas in the suburb.

The TV report noted that the settlement activity in that suburb, which overlooks the holy Aqsa Mosque, has been ongoing for the past three years and that tens of housing units were built in the process.