JERUSALEM: Hanan Ashrawi, a senior official of the Palestine Liberation Organization, said Friday that Palestinian lives, rights and lands were being violated in the service of Israeli election campaigns.

Israel published tenders on Friday for the construction of 450 new housing units in occupied Palestinian territory.

Ariel Rosenberg, spokesman for Israel’s Housing Ministry, said the government was simply remarketing tenders that had failed to sell when they were initially offered last year.

Israel goes to the polls on March 17, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seeking a fourth term in office. A number of groups, including Netanyahu’s own Likud party, are battling to secure pro-settler votes at the ballot.

The tenders envisage construction in a number of locations, including near the flashpoint West Bank (WB) city of Hebron, and several enclaves in the highly sensitive Jerusalem area.

In addition, authorities have submitted plans for the construction of 93 new homes in the East Jerusalem settlement of Gilo, anti-settlement watchdog Peace Now said.

The group called the wave of bids as “a pre-election grab to establish facts on the ground” and said it risked worsening relations between Israel and the United States ahead of a planned speech to Congress by Netanyahu on March 3.

“After embarrassing the Obama administration with the invitation to the Congress, Netanyahu adds another slam in the face of the Americans, showing no respect to Israel’s closest ally,” Peace Now said.

The United States, like most other countries, regularly condemns Israeli settlement expansion, saying it threatens the chances of securing a peace deal with the Palestinians.

US President Barack Obama is refusing to see Netanyahu in March, saying it would be “inappropriate” to do so just ahead of the parliamentary election.

Israel has created homes for more than 500,000 Israelis on land it seized in a 1967 war, including the WB and East Jerusalem.

Palestinians say the land belongs to them and want it as part of a future, independent state. Years of on-off negotiations have repeatedly failed to secure a peace treaty.