Foreign policy chief: EU will not recognise Israel’s changes to East Jerusalem 

The European Union Foreign Policy Chief, Josep Borrell, said the bloc will not recognise any changes brought by Israel to occupied East Jerusalem, urging Tel Aviv to reconsider its plans to build more settlement units in the area.

Borrell said in a statement on Saturday that “such steps would cut the geographic and territorial contiguity between Jerusalem and Bethlehem, isolate Palestinian communities living in these areas, and threaten the viability of a two-state solution, with Jerusalem as capital of both states.”

The European official’s announcement came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Thursday that 3,000 new settlement units would be built for Israeli settlers in a new neighbourhood in the illegal Givat Hamatos settlement, in addition to another 2,200 settlements units in the nearby Har Homa neighbourhood in occupied East Jerusalem.

Borrell stressed that the Israeli plans are “incompatible with international law”.

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