The Biden Administration has sent a sharp protest to the Prime Minister's Office over the Israeli government's decision to promote the planning and construction of about 3,000 new housing units in settlements in Judea and Samaria, Walla Barak Ravid reported Tuesday. US Consul General in Jerusalem Michael Ratnani called Prime Minister Naftali Bennett's political adviser, Shimrit Meir following the announcement of the approval of the housing units last week and clarified that the administration takes construction in the settlements very seriously. Rathani noted that the United States is particularly concerned about the fact that about two-thirds of all housing units brought in for approval are located in isolated settlements deep in Judea and Samaria and outside the large settlement blocs. "It was a difficult conversation," a source told Ravid. State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters on Friday the US is "concerned" about the announcement in Israel that 3,000 Jewish housing units in Judea and Samaria would be approved next week. "We are concerned about the announcement of a meeting next week to advance settlement units deep in the West Bank," Price said in response to a question from Walla reporter Barak Ravid, adding that the US "[believes] it is critical for Israel and the Palestinian Authority to refrain from unilateral steps that exacerbate tension and undercut efforts to advance a negotiated two-state solution." "This certainly includes settlement activity, as well as retroactive legalization of settlement outposts." The Supreme Planning Council of the Civil Administration will convene this coming Wednesday for the first time since the current government's term began and since the beginning of the Biden Administration and will approve 3,144 housing units in Judea and Samaria. Among the approvals is the outline plan of Mitzpe Dani in the area of the settlement of Ma'ale Mikhmas in the Benjamin region. At the same time, the construction of more than a thousand housing units for Palestinian Arabs in Area C will be approved. According to the published agenda, the homes will be built in the communities of Revava, Kedumim, Elon Moreh, Har Bracha, Karnei Shomron and communities in Gush Etzion and the Hebron Hills. The construction that will be approved for the Palestinian Arabs on Sunday in about a week and a half in Area C will include about 1,133 housing units. At the political level, it was decided not to include Khirbet Beit Zakariyyah in the permits following a protest by settlement leaders who claimed that building permits at this location, between Alon Shvut and Rosh Tzurim, would harm Israel's territorial contiguity.
