Israel okays 240 settler homes
Israeli authorities yesterday approved building permits for 240 new homes in settlement neighbourhoods in Jerusalem's eastern sector, Deputy Mayor Meir Turjeman told AFP.
A city planning committee approved 90 units in Gilo and another 150 in Ramat Shlomo, Turjeman said, the latest in a series of moves to enhance Jewish presence in the contested Israeli-annexed Palestinian sector of the city.
Turjeman noted the committee also approved 44 units for Palestinians in their neighbourhood of Beit Hanina.
The Ramat Shlomo units are part of plans announced in 2010 to build 1,600 settler homes in Ramat Shlomo, an ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighbourhood in east Jerusalem.
The 2010 announcement came as then US vice president Joe Biden was visiting Israel, provoking fierce US opposition and souring relations with Washington for months.
Yesterday's approvals were granted weeks after the same committee voted on an expansion creating the largest Israeli settlement within a Palestinian neighbourhood in the city.
Jerusalem's status is ultra-sensitive and central to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Earlier this month, the Israeli ministers were set to approve a bill absorbing major Israeli settlements currently in the occupied West Bank into Jerusalem by enlarging the city limits.
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