Israeli authorities on December 2 authorized
construction of another 625 homes
for Jewish residents in Israeli-annexed east
Jerusalem, local news site Ynet reported.
An interior ministry planning committee
approved construction of the homes in Pisgat
Zeev, on the city’s
northeastern edge, after
a two-year delay
during which committee-
ordered amendments
were incorporated
into the plan,
Ynet said.
The ministry
spokeswoman could
not be reached for
confirmation.
If confirmed, the
plan is sure to stoke more Palestinian anger.
In a message to the United Nations, Palestinian
president Mahmud Abbas warned that
Israel’s settlement of occupied territories had
become “a time bomb” that could destroy
peace hopes at any moment.
On the same day, the Jerusalem city council
approved 130 new Jewish homes in Gilo, also
in east Jerusalem, drawing an immediate protest
from Palestinian officials.
Israeli refusal to extend a 10-month freeze
on settlement construction in the West Bank,
which ended in late September, led to the
breakdown of direct
peace talks with the
Palestinians that had
only resumed three
weeks earlier.
Abbas has said he
will not return to talks
without a new freeze
that includes east Jerusalem,
which the
Palestinians want for
the capital of their
promised state.
Abbas said on December 2 he was expecting
to formally hear the outcome of US efforts
to secure a new freeze within a day.
“We still haven’t received an official US response,
but we may get one officially,” Abbas
told reporters as he inaugurated a new building
at his West Bank headquarters in Ramallah