Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has no intention to construct settlements in the E1 corridor, and is only using the issue to distract the public from social affairs, Labor part head Shelly Yacimovich said Wednesday.
"[Netanyahu] just wants you to focus on E1 and not on (striking) nurses, on the public health care system which has crashed, and on issues for which you have taken to the streets," she said.
The international community has widely condemned preliminary plans to build 3,000 new housing units in the E1 corridor connecting Jerusalem with Ma'aleh Adumim. The Palestinians claim that building in E1 would cut Jerusalem off from the rest of the West Bank, break up the territorial continuity of a future Palestinian state and sound the death knell to a two-state solution.
On Tuesday, Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas said he may file charges against Israel with the UN’s International Criminal Court over the government’s decision to build in E1.
Yacimovich also attacked Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman on social issues, saying they are ignoring "how we earn less but pay more for health, education, commodities and housing," and warning that the electorate would make them pay at the ballot box.