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Israel unfreezes plan of over 400 homes in east Jerusalem settlement

Xinhua, November 17, 2015 Adjust font size:

Israeli authorities have decided to unfreeze a previously-shelved plan to build more than 400 housing units in an east Jerusalem settlement, a municipality official said on Tuesday.

Tenders will be issued for the construction of 436 homes in Ramat Shlomo, a Jewish neighborhood in east Jerusalem, Meir Turgeman, chairman of the Local Committee for Planning and Building in Jerusalem, told Army Radio.

He added that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu personally approved the move.

The Prime Minister's Office confirmed the report.

In addition, the municipality, backed by the Israeli government, will seek to build another 1,000 housing units in the neighborhood.

The project was shelved since 2010, after it created a clash between Israeli and U.S. officials, who harshly criticized it, amid a visit by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden to the region at the time of the authorization.

In May, Israel approved the construction of 900 housing units in Ramat Shlomo, triggering backlash from U.S. officials.

Israel occupied east Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip territories in the 1967 Mideast War, and annexed east Jerusalem -- home to more than 300,000 Palestinians -- in 1981, in a move deemed illegal by the international community.

The Palestinians seek to establish a state on these territories, with east Jerusalem as the future state's capital, amid the two-state solution, with Jewish settlements in these territories hampering Palestinian territorial continuity. Endit