Written question asked by Frank Roy (Labour) on Monday, 3 November 2014, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 5 November 2014. It was answered by Tobias Ellwood (Conservative) on Friday, 7 November 2014 on behalf of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Israel

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, when he last discussed with his Israeli counterpart the planned building of 1,000 new houses in Jerusalem.

Answer: I issued a statement on 29 October condemning the announcement of plans for 1,060 new housing units in East Jerusalem. I made it clear that this was an ill-judged and ill-timed decision, which makes it harder to achieve a two state solution with Jerusalem as a shared capital. Officials from our Embassy in Tel Aviv have raised this issue with the Israeli National Security Adviser, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Political-Military Adviser, senior contacts at the National Security Council and the Cabinet Office.

Secondary information