JERUSALEM - Following a successful Palestinian bid to join the U.N. cultural agency UNESCO, Israel said Tuesday that it would retaliate by issuing tenders for about 2,000 new housing units on land it seized during the 1967 Mideast War.
After meeting with his top advisers, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would order the construction of new apartments in the Jerusalem area and the West Bank settlements of Gush Etzion and Maaleh Adumim. Officials said about 1,650 units would be built around Jerusalem and the rest in the West Bank.
The government also temporarily suspended payment this month to the Palestinian Authority of about $100 million in tax transfers that Israel collects on behalf of Palestinians.
Israeli officials said the moves came in response to the Palestinian campaign to seek international statehood recognition from U.N. entities and other international organizations. In a vote Monday, UNESCO became the first such entity to afford Palestinians membership as a state.
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Israel and the U.S. have opposed such efforts, saying that Palestinians will only end the Israeli occupation and secure statehood through direct negotiations.
After UNESCO's vote, the U.S. announced that it would suspend payment next month of about $60 million to UNESCO, in keeping with a 1990s law that bans U.S. financing of U.N. agencies that grant statehood status to Palestinians.
On Tuesday, Canada joined the U.S. in cutting off funding for UNESCO. Canada contributes about $10 million a year to the agency.
Palestinians reacted angrily Tuesday to Israel's latest expansion of Jewish housing on land they hope to one day make part of an independent state, calling the move a blow to the peace process.
"This is only an excuse," said Nabil abu Rudaineh, a spokesman for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. "Construction in the settlements did not stop before Palestine became a member of UNESCO and will not stop after that."
He described the decision to temporarily withhold the tax transfers as "theft." The money, which he said Israel is obligated by treaty to pass along, is used to pay salaries for Palestinian security officers and government employees.
Israel's government has made no final decision about whether to permanently halt the tax transfers. Some in Netanyahu's coalition government warn that such a step might cause the Palestinian Authority to collapse, leaving a political and security vacuum in the West Bank.
