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U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday that increased Israeli settlement building is not helping to ease tensions between Israelis and Palestinians.
"I don't think that the situation is helped by additional settlement construction and building," Kerry told a House of Representatives Appropriations subcommittee at a hearing on the State Department's annual budget request.
"I think that I know we need to see measures taken on both sides to indicate a readiness and willingness to try to proceed forward and reduce the violence," Kerry said, when asked about heightened violence.
While the U.S. is seen as Israel's best ally, Kerry's words are unlikely to have much of an impact. On Jan. 27, a day after the United Nations condemned Israel for the expansion of Jewish settlements in Palestine, the Israeli government approved the construction of over 150 new homes in Jewish settlements in the Palestinian-occupied West Bank.
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