Israel approves 2,600 homes - FT.com An Israeli committee on Wednesday approved a plan to build 2,600 homes in East Jerusalem in a step that activists claimed would in effect create a new settlement and significantly cloud prospects for the creation of a Palestinian state. The approval came two days after Israel gave a nod to another 1,500 settler homes in East Jerusalem and came just hours after the US, Israel's staunchest ally, issued an unusually blunt criticism of the Jewish state, charging that Israel was engaging in a "pattern of provocative action" and further risking peace chances. The Jerusalem planning and construction committee authorised the new homes to be constructed in the Jewish neighbourhood of Givat Hamatos, said the municipality. Hagit Ofran, a project director in Peace Now, the Israeli anti-settlement group, criticised the decision, saying it advanced one of the "most dangerous plans for the two-state solution." The plan, which is likely be followed by a months-long process of issuing tenders, would create a new hilltop settlement that would isolate East Jerusalem from the southern parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Ms Ofran said. It would especially be damaging to Beit Safafa, a Palestinian village of 10,000 residents, which would have its access to the West Bank city of Bethlehem blocked. Activists say that Givat Hamatos is occupied by several dozen trailer homes whose inhabitants are not associated with the settlement movement. Palestinian leaders on Tuesday condemned the Givat Hamatos plan and threatened to advance possible legal action against Israel in the International Criminal Court in The Hague should it be carried out. Israel has grown concerned over such legal action, which the Palestinians can access following their status upgrade at the UN last month, which was fiercely opposed by Israel. Shortly after the vote at the UN, Israel announced plans to build a settlement on a block known as E1, which would complete a ring of Israeli settlements around occupied East Jerusalem, cutting the link between the city and the West Bank. Five EU states summoned Israeli ambassadors to express their concern at the move. Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organisation's executive committee, said: "What they are doing by isolating Jerusalem from the West Bank is playing with fire in an already volatile situation. If nobody can bring Israel to its senses, then certainly judicial accountability would be considered. Mark Regev, a spokesman for Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, played down charges that Israel was establishing a new settlement. He said: "This is not a settlement, this is Jerusalem. Successive Israeli governments have built in the new neighbourhoods of Jerusalem and we continue that policy.