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Israel approves plan for 2,200 Arab homes in East Jerusalem

Xinhua, April 2, 2015 Adjust font size:

An Israeli planning body has approved a plan to construct 2,200 housing units for Palestinians in East Jerusalem, a spokesperson with the Jerusalem municipality told Xinhua Wednesday.

The move was hailed as a victory for Arab residents of the city, the spokesperson said.

The new neighborhood, called Arab al-Sawahra, would mark the largest construction project for Palestinian families in East Jerusalem since Israel captured and annexed this territory in the 1967 Mideast War.

Under the plan, residential units, schools, commercial centers and parks will be built on 1,500 dunams (about 370 acres) of lands next to the Palestinian neighborhood of Jabal Mukaber, said Sapir Peles, a spokeswoman with the Jerusalem municipality.

The plan was approved on Monday by the Interior Ministry's District Planning and Building Committee, said Peles.

Ir Amim, an Israeli human rights watchdog, said in a statement sent to Xinhua that the approval relates to a general plan only and the actual construction works might not begin soon.

"To proceed, detailed plans, which could take several years to develop, must be approved before building permits can be issued," according to the watchdog.

Settlers and right wing parties have fiercely opposed the plan, impeding its advancement for more than two years. The latest approval came only after the Jerusalem District Court ordered the planning committee to unfreeze the plan.

"The housing shortage in East Jerusalem is enormous, and this is the first time that a plan of this extent has been approved for a Palestinian neighborhood," Aviv Tatarsky, a researcher with Ir Amim, told the Jerusalem Post. "I think this is a very unusual and very good development," he added.

The Arab residents of Jerusalem have long sought building permits but the municipality rarely approves it.

Over the last decades, eastern Jerusalem has grown with no official master plan or outline, which led to a widespread phenomenon of illegal building that the municipality estimates to include 20,000 unauthorized residential units and public buildings.

Israel's annexation of East Jerusalem has never been recognized by the international community.

In recent months, the city saw a surge of violence between Palestinians and Israelis, mainly over the construction in the Jewish settlement neighborhoods of Jerusalem and visits of Israelis in the flashpoint al-Aqsa compound, a holy site for both Jews and Muslims. Endit