The planning committee which approves construction throughout Yehuda and Shomron was scheduled to meet this week but the meeting was pushed off to June.

According to a Haaretz report, quoting a “senior official in the Prime Minister’s Office” who spoke on condition of anonymity, the meeting will only take place following the visit to Jerusalem by US President Donald Trump, not wishing to create a conflict with the US administration.

It was during the 2010 visit of US Vice President Joe Biden that the very same committee approved 1,600 housing units in areas viewed by the US as over the Green Line, Ramat Shlomo. This diplomatic faux pas led to Israeli embarrassment and an apology from Jerusalem as clearly the US was angered and the vice president caught off guard by the announcement.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)