WASHINGTON: The United States and Europe stepped up pressure on Israel on Monday to reverse course over new settlement plans that are seen as threatening the viability of a future Palestinian state.
But Israel, whose settlements on occupied or annexed Palestinian land have long been a thorn in the side of peace efforts, insisted it would not back down and laid out revised plans for an additional 1,600 homes.
Israeli settlement plans always raise hackles but Friday's proposals, seen as payback for the Palestinians winning non-member observer state status at the United Nations on Thursday, are considered particularly contentious.
Some of the 3,000 homes are to be built in a corridor of land called E1, an area of the occupied West Bank that runs between the easternmost edge of annexed east Jerusalem and an existing Israeli settlement, Maaleh Adumim.
Palestinians believe construction on E1 will ultimately connect Jerusalem to Maaleh Adumim, largely dividing the northern and southern West Bank and making the creation of a contiguous Palestinian state almost impossible.
Israeli plans for construction in E1 have been in the works since the early 1990s but have never been implemented due to heavy pressure, largely from the United States.
The international outcry since Friday's move has been intense.
France summoned the Israeli ambassador to express its "grave concern" over the settlement plan, while Britain's Foreign Office called in Israel's envoy to "deplore" the decision and urge Israel to reconsider.
Denmark, Spain and Sweden also summoned ambassadors to express deep concern, while UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon issued an unusually strong rebuke on Sunday, calling the plans a "fatal blow" to the two-state solution.
The US State Department warned on Monday that the E1 area "is particularly sensitive and construction there would be especially damaging to efforts to achieve a two-state solution."
President Barack Obama's spokesman Jay Carney ramped up the pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later in the day, directly calling on him to change course.
"We urge Israeli leaders to reconsider these unilateral decisions and exercise restraint as these actions are counterproductive and make it harder to resume direct negotiations," Carney told reporters.
Germany, Russia and Japan also criticized the Israeli plans.
But despite the clamor, Israel dug in and even went further by reviving a plan to construct 1,600 new settler homes in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo.
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