Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he is moving forward with a plan to build some 3,500 homes in the settlement of Ma'ale Adumim in the E-1 area of the West Bank, a project frozen after international criticism.
"I have given instructions to immediately publish for deposit the plan to build 3,500 housing units in E-1," Netanyahu said, using an administrative term for the first phase of a planning process.
Palestinian and foreign opponents of the plan had cautioned that building houses in the area could bisect the West Bank, cut off Palestinians from Jerusalem and further dim their hopes for a contiguous state.