Hebrew media sources revealed on Thursday that the Israeli government is expected to approve a set of plans for the construction of hundreds of settlement units in Occupied Jerusalem that had been frozen for two years due to US pressures.
Israel Hayom newspaper reported on its website that the Jerusalem Planning and Building committee will hold a meeting next Wednesday to approve the construction of 700 new settlement units.
According to the plan 500 settlement units will be built on an area of 71 dunums located between Ramat Shlomo settlement and Shu’fat neighborhood to the north of Occupied Jerusalem.
Israel’s Jerusalem municipality claims that the lands where the housing units will be built are Jewish property and the lands where the streets and public buildings will be built are privately-owned Palestinian lands that are planned to be confiscated.
The committee is also expected to ratify the establishment of 200 settlement units in Ramot settlement built on the lands of the villages of Lifta Beit Iksa and Beit Hanina in the northwestern part of East Jerusalem.
These settlement projects that have been re-activated recently east of the Green Line had been frozen during the term of the former US president Barack Obama due to pressures made by Washington and the international community.
On Wednesday the Jerusalem municipality agreed to issue building permits for 176 settlement units in the heart of Jabal al-Mukabber neighborhood to the southeast of Occupied Jerusalem.
Haaretz newspaper reported that this scheme is aimed at expanding Nof Zion settlement outpost that was established in 1994 to become the largest of its kind in the heart of a Palestinian neighborhood in Jerusalem.
All Israeli settlements built in the occupied Palestinian territories including East Jerusalem are considered illegal by the United Nations and international community.
In December 2016 the UN Security Council adopted the resolution No. (2334) which requires a complete halt to the settlement construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
