JERUSALEM: An Israeli government committee yesterday advanced plans for 500 settler homes in East Jerusalem, an official said, in the face of disapproval from the United States at construction on occupied Palestinian land.
The Interior Ministry panel’s preliminary approval of the new homes for Ramat Shlomo, a neighbourhood built on West Bank territory captured in the 1967 war and annexed to Jerusalem in a move not recognized abroad, was kept low profile in an apparent bid to avoid friction with Washington.
A week ago, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered plans for some 600 housing units for Ramat Shlomo and another 400 for Har Homa, another East Jerusalem neighbourhood, to be advanced.
The Peace Now non-governmental organisation said the plans had been put on hold since 2006, but with the new approval building itself could begin within six to 12 months.
“The decision to move forward in Ramat Shlomo is irresponsible,” Peace Now spokeswoman Hagit Ofran said.
“It proves that Netanyahu does not want a two-state solution, only a settler state.”
Palestinian officials have voiced alarm — echoed in the international community — over the settlements, viewing them as a main obstacle to founding the independent state they seek in the West Bank and Gaza Strip with East Jerusalem as its capital.
An Interior Ministry spokeswoman did not immediately confirm yesterday’s committee decision, details of which were given by an Israeli official on condition of anonymity.
The official said Israel hoped to avoid publicity around the move, one in a series of logistical and legal stages before construction begins. The number of new homes planned for Ramat Shlomo had been reduced, the official said, due to environmental concerns.
The United States said last week such construction is not conducive to “peace in the region and a two-state solution”.
The European Union asked Israel for clarifications about Netanyahu’s promotion of the Har Homa and Ramat Shlomo projects.
Meanwhile, in the latest crackdown after months of violent clashes in the holy city, Israeli police arrested at least 23 Palestinians in east Jerusalem overnight and yesterday, Palestinian officials said.
But a police spokeswoman confirmed only four arrests, without accounting for the number of people who might have been arrested by other security services.
Those arrested were from Issawiya and Wadi Joz — Arab neighbourhoods in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem — as well as the Old City, the Palestinian Prisoners Club said in a statement.
On Thursday, police shot dead a suspect in the attempted murder of a right-wing Jewish rabbi, sparking a day of clashes between stone-throwing Palestinians and security forces who responded with tear gas and rubber bullets.
The latest arrests came on top of the detention of some 111 Palestinians since October 22 over east Jerusalem violence, according to police figures.
Police have tightened security around east Jerusalem, and in the neighbourhoods of Issawiya and flashpoint Silwan, roads were barricaded yesterday with makeshift checkpoints, local activists said.
Violence soared in the eastern sector of the city during the summer, after the July murder of a Palestinian teenager by Jewish extremists in revenge for the killing of three Israeli teens in the West Bank, and during the ensuing 50-day war in the Gaza Strip.
Clashes have picked up again over the past few weeks, focused mainly on tensions around the Al Aqsa mosque compound, a disputed holy site sacred to both Muslims and Jews in the heart of Jerusalem’s Old City.
The Prisoners Club says some 7,000 Palestinians are in Israeli jails, including 550 under administrative detention whereby prisoners can be held for six-month periods that can be indefinitely renewed by a court order.
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