Israel approved a major expansion of a Jewish neighborhood in east-Jerusalem, issuing building permits for 176 new housing units. The decision the neighborhood of Neve Zion was hailed by Israeli officials as an important move that would bolster the Jewish presence in the predominantly-Arab eastern part of the city. Deputy Jerusalem Mayor Dov Kalmanovitch announced, “We are proud of this decision. After many years of anticipation, more and more Jews will enter the neighborhood. It’s still not enough, the (construction) freeze was difficult for us, but I hope the road (to construction) will be opened and we will start building thousands of units, also in the eastern part of the city”. He added “Jerusalem is one city, it’s unified, all populations will live in it, Arabs and Jews but it will be under Jewish sovereignty forever and ever,” the deputy Jerusalem mayor said.
The construction, which a Jerusalem municipal spokeswoman said was approved by the city’s planning committee, was swiftly condemned by the Palestinians as a violation of international law. Senior PLO official Wassel Abu Youssef stressed that the Palestinian will apply all methods, including resistance on the ground, against Israel’s decision. He said, “The announcement by Netanyahu’s government about more settlement units to be built in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, including Jerusalem, assures that the clear war against our Palestinian people is continuing, and it is a challenge to all of the international laws and a challenge to all the calls by the international community that talk about the illegality of the settlements and calls on Netanyahu’s government to stop the building of these settlement units, which is considered a war crime against the Palestinian people,” Youssef declared, while adding, “We have to apply all methods including the popular resistance on the ground, against the settlements and to boycott this (Israeli) occupation, which does not commit to any of the international laws,” the Palestinian official asserted.
The construction of the new housing units will nearly triple the number of homes designated for the neighborhood’s Jewish residents, which is surrounded by Arab houses in the neighboring Jabel Mukaber.