WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? The United States is expected to voice deep disappointment at Israel's speeding up settlement building following UNESCO's decision to grant full membership to the Palestinians, a U.S. official said on Wednesday.
"(We are) deeply disappointed by the announcement," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, referring to Israel's decision on Tuesday to accelerate construction of some 2,000 housing units in eastern Jerusalem and on the West Bank.
The Palestinians are looking to establish a state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, land Israel seized in the 1967 Middle East War.
"We continue to make our opposition clear to the (Israeli) government (that) unilateral actions such as these work against efforts to resume direct negotiations and do not advance the goal of a reasonable and necessary agreement between the parties," the official added.
Acting after the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) voted on Monday to accept the Palestinians as full members, Israel also decided temporarily to halt transfers of revenues that it collects for the Palestinians.
The U.S. official noted that cutting off such revenues hurt the efforts of Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad to build the institutions of a Palestinian state, including security forces that have helped to maintain the peace.
On Tuesday, the Palestinian presidency said Israel had decided "to speed up the destruction of the peace process" by accelerating settlement building and described the decision to temporarily halt transfers of funds as "inhumane."
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