Before Netanyahu-Obama meet, Interior Ministry Jerusalem committee okays building over Green Line

Hours before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Barack Obama are set to meet in New York, the Interior Ministry’s Jerusalem planning and construction committee approves a project to expand the Ramot neighborhood northward, toward the neighboring Arab village of Bir-Nabala, Israel Radio reports.

Ramot is situated over the pre-1967 Green Line and considered an illegal settlement by the international community, while Israel contends its part of a united Jerusalem.

The 1.6-acre area is slated for the construction of a school to relieve crowded classrooms in the predominantly ultra-Orthodox neighborhood. Other debates in the planning committee were canceled, including one for construction in the Gilo neighborhood in southern Jerusalem, which is also over the Green Line. That meeting was postponed for another two weeks.