Israel weighs 5,000 new settler homes

Israeli planning committees are to weigh several plans for nearly 5,000 new settler homes in neighbourhoods of annexed east Jerusalem this week, with at least one major project set for final approval.
Non-governmental groups Peace Now and Terrestrial Jerusalem, which track settlement construction, said Jerusalem municipal and district committees will consider four projects this week in the Givat HaMatos and Gilo neighbourhoods.
The projects are up for discussion after Israel on Monday gave the green light for the construction of 1,500 homes in the east Jerusalem neighbourhood of Ramat Shlomo, in a move which has already drawn sharp US criticism.
The other settlement plans being weighed this week are all in southern sector of the city, near the West Bank city of Bethlehem.
Critics say construction in these areas would effectively sever Bethlehem from Jerusalem.
The projects are likely to spur new Palestinian and international criticism of Israel, which does not view construction in the east as settlement building, and describes both halves of the Holy City as the "eternal, undivided" capital of the Jewish state.