Settlement watchdog Peace Now said the administration of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was pursuing the well-worn path of creating facts on the ground in a bid to block any two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"Netanyahu's government not only is not promoting peace, but it is doing everything it can to prevent it by setting facts on the ground that will prevent a two-state solution," said Peace Now's Hagit Ofran.

"Generally speaking, since Netanyahu gave his speech to the US Congress (in May), and since there was no official decision against Israel in the UN, he is allowing himself to do whatever he wants to continue preventing the peace process," she told AFP.

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According to information published by the Construction and Housing Ministry on Sunday, 500 of the units will be located in Har Homa, a Jewish neighborhood in east Jerusalem. Left-wing activists see Har Homa as one of the most controversial Jewish neighborhoods in the capital, because it was started after the Oslo Accords were signed and because it creates a barrier of Jewish homes between east Jerusalem Arab neighborhoods and Bethlehem. "[Prime Minister Binyamin] Netanyahu is not only attempting not to make peace, he's also going forward with plans that will make peace impossible in the future and make it impossible to have two states for two peoples," said Hagit Ofran, who heads Peace Now's Settlement Watch team.

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