This latest Illegal Israeli expansionist plan make peace negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis look increasingly futile.

The plans are the largest batch of approvals since Netanyahu became Prime Minister.

"It shows that it is meaningless to resume negotiations when this goes on." Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said on Tuesday "We condemn this in the strongest possible terms,"

Britain also joined the chorus of condemnations  - "The Foreign Secretary has been very clear that a credible deal involves Jerusalem as a shared capital," a British statement said. "Expanding settlements on occupied land in east Jerusalem makes that deal much harder. So this decision on Gilo is wrong and we oppose it."

Although the US administration have publicly  said they found the latest proposal 'dismaying', sources close to Benjamin Netenyahu claim the White House pronouncements were just a show.

Mr Netanyahu has instructed his ministers not to publicly comment on the plans.

"What we are seeing is Israel's strategy of trying to differentiate between East Jerusalem and the rest of the occupied West Bank." said Al-Jazeera's Jacky Rowland in Jerusalem "We have seen the government repeatedly claim that Jerusalem is its so-called united capital and the government said just today that whereas it planned to exercise what it called maximum restraint in the West Bank, it claimed that Jerusalem was a different case."

Approximately 500,000 Jews live in a 100 Illegal Settlements built on Illegally occupied territory in the West Bank and Jerusalem.

Further info:

BBC Hardtalk interview with Dr. Barghouti, 19th November 2009