Israel is to approve 1,400 new settler homes in east Jerusalem, media and the local council said on Sunday, defying pressure to halt settlement building that has stalled peace talks with the Palestinians. The massive construction project will add homes to the annexed east Jerusalem settlement neighbourhood of Gilo and is expected to receive final approval from the district planning commission within days.
The project is likely to spark condemnation from the international community, which has repeatedly called on Israel to avoid new building projects in mainly Arab east Jerusalem.
Jerusalem's municipal council in a statement confirmed the project, but said it was part of a long-standing policy to expand housing availability for the city's Jewish and Arab residents.
Gilo is one of the first and largest Jewish neighbourhoods in Jerusalem that Israel has built on land captured in the 1967 Six-Day War. It lies on the southern edge of the city, next to the West Bank town of Bethlehem.
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