THE JERUSALEM municipality planning committee has approved construction of 942 new homes in the neighbourhood of Gilo, on West Bank land captured in the 1967 Six-Day War.
The decision, taken just hours after Israeli president Shimon Peres landed in the US for talks with US president Barack Obama, will enable Gilo to expand southwards towards the West Bank city of Bethlehem. The plan allows for the possibility of an additional 300 units in the area in the future.
A municipality spokesman said the attempt to describe the new project as a political provocation was “ridiculous”. He said the expansion was necessary for the city’s development and to create affordable homes for young couples and students in the capital.
Yosef “Pepe” Alalo, head of the left-wing Meretz faction in the council, which opposed the move, accused prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat of acting while the international community was preoccupied with the uprisings in the Arab world.
“They don’t understand that the world and we won’t let them continue creating unilateral facts which thwart the chance to reach an agreement. Today, more than ever, is the time to launch a dialogue with the Palestinians,” he said.
Israel’s refusal to freeze building in Jerusalem neighbourhoods over the 1967 green line border prompted the Palestinians to walk out of the renewed peace talks last year, leaving the diplomatic process in limbo.
The Netanyahu government considers Jerusalem Israel’s “eternal and indivisible” capital, backing Jewish residency throughout the city.
Palestinians seek east Jerusalem’s Arab neighbourhoods as the capital of a future independent state.
The timing of municipal decisions to expand Jewish neighbourhoods built over the green line has caused acute embarrassment to the government in the past. Last March 1,600 housing units were approved in the ultra-Orthodox Ramat Shlomo neighbourhood during US vice-president Joe Biden’s visit to Israel, creating a diplomatic crisis in bilateral ties.
In a further move likely to boost West Bank construction, Mr Netanyahu and his defence minister, Ehud Barak, declared four settlements urban areas, allowing for a higher density of building.
The defence ministry issued a statement clarifying that the four communities were legal settlements built on state lands with government authorisation. Officials stressed that any new construction would still require government approval.