Israel Approves Plans for 800 Settler Houses in, Outside East Jerusalem

Israel approved consturction of 800 houses for Jewish settlers in East Jerusalem and the nearby West Bank settlement of Ma'aleh Adumim, according to local media.

MOSCOW(Sputnik) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and newly appointed Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman have approved plans for the construction of 800 houses for Jewish settlers in East Jerusalem and the nearby West Bank settlement of Ma'aleh Adumim, local media reported Monday.

According to The Times of Israel newspaper, 560 houses are expected to be built in Ma'aleh Adumim, while 140 new units are to be erected in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Ramot and another 100 houses in the neighborhood of Har Homa.

According to the Haaretz newspaper, Israel has also approved the construction of 600 new housing units for Arabs in Givat Hamatos in East Jerusalem. However, Zeev Elkin, who is minister for Jerusalem affairs, criticized the decision, saying any houses for Arabs should be balanced through the construction of units for Jews in the same location.

The new plans were voiced amid a recent wave of Palestinian-Israeli violence. At least three people, including a 13-year-old girl with US citizenship who was stabbed in her home in a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank, were killed and six were injured in a series of terrorist attacks in late June.

Palestinians have been seeking the recognition of their independent state, proclaimed in 1988, in the territories of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip. The Israeli government refuses to recognize Palestine as an independent political and diplomatic entity, and builds settlements on the occupied areas, despite objections from the United Nations.