EU's Mogherini Condemns New Israeli Settler Plans ahead of Visit

EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini on Wednesday condemned Israel's plans to build another 500 settler homes in annexed East Jerusalem, ahead of her first visit to the Jewish state later this week.

Going ahead with the new settler homes risks undermining efforts to get the Middle East peace process back on track, Mogherini said.

The European Union was leading efforts to get the talks restarted "but this decision represents yet another highly detrimental step which undermines the prospects for a two-state solution," she said in a statement.

It "seriously calls into question Israel's commitment to a peaceful negotiated settlement with the Palestinians," she added.

Voicing a sense of exasperation, Mogherini said that since previous pleas "have gone unheard, I call on the Israeli authorities to reverse (the plans) and put an end to its settlement policy in East Jerusalem and in the West Bank."

Mogherini is due to visit Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Gaza and Ramallah on a three-day trip beginning Friday meant to be "a signal of the priority given to the region by the EU," a spokesperson said earlier this week.

The EU is a major provider of funds for the Palestinian authorities and committed 450 million euros (562 million dollars) to the reconstruction of Gaza at a donor's conference last month in Cairo.

There was widespread concern at the conference that after three destructive conflicts in Gaza in the past six years, any aid would only be lost to another round of violence unless a wider peace deal could be reached.

The EU has tried to play the role of honest broker in peace efforts to no avail as Israel and the Palestinian authorities blame each other for the breakdown in the talks.

The 28-member bloc has repeatedly called on Israel to end decades of settlement building in east Jerusalem and the West Bank, land which Israel seized in the 1967 war with the Arabs and on which the Palestinians want to build a future state.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been blunt in response, charging last week that such calls were "detached from reality" and undercut the peace process.