Barack Obama arrives in Israel March 20, 2013. Photo: Youtube

JNS.org – Senior U.S. officials are indicating that the White House is considering imposing economic sanctions on Israel over construction in eastern Jerusalem, and Judea and Samaria.

White House representatives are believed to have met just after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Barack Obama met in Washington in October, which had been followed by a public disagreement between the two leaders, Haaretz reported.

“I’m obviously not going to comment one way or another on reported internal deliberation. We’ve made clear our position on settlement activity publicly and that hasn’t changed,” U.S. state department spokesperson Marie Harf. Harf added that she would not “address hypotheticals”.

Netanyahu has publicly opposed the White House’s opposition to the construction.

“It’s against the American values. And it doesn’t bode well for peace,” he said in an interview with CBS in October. “The idea that we’d have this ethnic purification as a condition for peace, I think it’s anti-peace.”