Turkey slams Israeli violation in E. Jerusalem

By Can Erozden

ANKARA

Turkey slammed Israel over the approval of building nearly 800 new housing units in the illegal settlements in occupied East Jerusalem early Sunday.

"Israeli authorities disregarded international law once again by approving the construction of 792 new housing units in the illegal settlements of Ramat Shlomo and Ramot in East Jerusalem," the Turkish Foreign Ministry said on its website.

The ministry added that Turkey is rejecting these illegal steps of Israel, which irreversibly damage the vision of a two-state solution.

This week the Israeli authorities approved construction of hundreds of new Jewish-only housing units in occupied East Jerusalem, according to Israeli media reports.

Roughly 650,000 Israeli Jews currently live on more than 100 settlements built since 1967, when Israel occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

The Palestinians want these territories -- along with the Gaza Strip -- for the establishment of a future Palestinian state.

International law views both the West Bank and East Jerusalem as "occupied territories" and considers all Jewish settlement-building activity there as illegal.