Israel approves settlement homes in East Jerusalem

JERUSALEM — Israel on Wednesday approved construction of nearly 200 new homes in a Jewish housing development of East Jerusalem, pushing ahead with a recent spike of settlement construction.

The decision by Jerusalem city officials followed last week’s approval to move forward with roughly 3,000 new homes in the West Bank.

A senior cabinet minister meanwhile said government officials are set to advance a plan that would make a group of West Bank settlements part of greater Jerusalem.

The spate of settlement activity drew condemnation from the Palestinians, who said the Israeli actions threatened U.S. President Donald Trump’s efforts to restart peace talks.

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat’s office said the city’s planning committee had approved 176 new homes in Nof Zion, a Jewish housing development that abuts the Arab neighbourhood of Jabel Mukaber.

Israel captured East Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed the territory in a step that was not recognized internationally. Today, it considers the entire city to be its eternal capital.

The Palestinians seek East Jerusalem, home to the city’s sensitive holy sites, as the capital of their future state.

The competing claims to East Jerusalem are at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and often boil over into violence.

Israel has ringed East Jerusalem with a number of Jewish neighbourhoods to prevent the city from being divided. In contrast, Nof Zion is situated inside an Arab neighbourhood.

City officials say the new homes will more than double its size, making it the largest Jewish settlement built in the heart of an Arab area of East Jerusalem.

Most of the international community, along with the Palestinians, oppose all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, considering them illegal obstacles to peace that gobble up land for a future Palestinian state. Israel says the fate of the settlements, home to more than 600,000 Israelis, should be decided through negotiations.

Nabil Abu Rdeneh, spokesperson for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said Israel was trying to destroy the possibility of a two-state solution.

“Expansion of settlements is a challenge to President Trump and his envoys while they are working to relaunch the peace process,” he said.

Trump’s envoy, Jason Greenblatt, has been shuttling throughout the region in hopes of restarting peace talks, which last collapsed in 2014.

There was no immediate reaction from the White House.

Last week, Israeli authorities pushed forward plans to build an additional 3,000 settler homes in the West Bank.

The plans were at various stages of development, but some 700 or so can be built immediately.