Israel's interior ministry has given final approval for the construction of 900 new homes in the east Jerusalem settlement neighbourhood of Har Homa, a ministry spokeswoman told AFP on Thursday. "This is a programme which was approved by the regional (planning and construction) committee two years ago," spokeswoman Efrat Orbach said.
"According to the planning process in Israel, (it) needed the completion of amendments, therefore it was finally approved today." The approval marks the final planning stage for a project that has garnered fierce criticism from the Palestinians and the international community.
It will significantly expand the hilltop neighbourhood, which lies in Jerusalem's south-west and is defined as being within the municipal boundaries despite lying directly next to the Palestinian West Bank town of Bethlehem. Hagit Ofran, who monitors settlement activity for the Israeli group Peace Now, described the final approval of the project as "a very dramatic development" because of where the new housing will be located. Israel captured Arab east Jerusalem along with the rest of the West Bank in the 1967 Six Day War and later annexed it in a move not recognised by the international community. Israel does not view construction in the east to be settlement activity.
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