Jerusalem okays almost 900 new homes over Green Line

The Jerusalem Municipality on Wednesday approved the construction of nearly 900 housing units in Gilo, a southern neighborhood over the Green Line.

The Planning and Construction Committee approved the plan to build 891 apartments in the Mordot Gilo South bloc, located on land between Gilo and the Arab neighborhood of Beit Jala.

The plan was tentatively approved in November, but the vote was delayed because it coincided with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to the United States and meeting with President Barack Obama.

The plan was initially approved in late 2012.

According to a Yedioth Ahronoth report, the land where the apartments are slated to be built was owned by multiple entities, including the Jewish National Fund and the Israel Land Authority. In November City Hall approved unifying the plots and granting a construction permit.

Israel effectively annexed East Jerusalem in 1980 and maintains it has the right to build in any part of the city. Housing announcements over the Green Line often draw condemnation from the international community, which does not recognize Israeli sovereignty over areas captured in 1967.

Deputy Housing Minister Jacky Levy said in a statement following the construction’s approval that “we must build up [Jerusalem] and strengthen it as much as possible.”

Ir Amim, an NGO which “seeks to render Jerusalem a more equitable and sustainable city for the Israelis and Palestinians who share it,” said in a statement that the municipality’s green light was “another example of the cat and mouse games the Israeli government plays with the Americans regarding building in East Jerusalem.”

“Continued unilateral steps, such as this, will only deepen the crisis that Israel is descending toward in lieu of a diplomatic agreement and will destroy any chance of reaching a real and just solution in Jerusalem,” the group said in a statement quoted in Haaretz.