78 homes approved in East Jerusalem Jewish neighborhoods

The Jerusalem Local Planning and Building Committee approved on Wednesday the construction of 78 new homes in two East Jerusalem Jewish neighborhoods.

Municipal spokesperson Brachie Sprung said that 50 apartments are to be built in the Ramot neighborhood and another 28 in Har Homa.

She said the same committee last week approved 178 homes for Arab residents in neighborhoods of the city including Ras al-Amud, Jabel Mukaber, Wadi Joz and Beit Hanina.

Although located in northwest Jerusalem, the Ramot neighborhood straddles the Green Line that marked Israel’s pre-1967 boundaries, which means some of its area is on land that the Palestinians want as part of a future state.

Har Homa is over the Green Line in southeast Jerusalem and faces the Bethlehem area.

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The announcement came the day after a terror attack on a synagogue in the Har Nof neighborhood killed five people, the latest in a series of terror incidents that came amid strained tensions in the capital that has seen almost daily rioting in Arab East Jerusalem areas. Four of the victims were worshipers at morning prayers, the fifth a Druze policeman who tried to intervene during the attack.

Earlier this month, the planning committee approved 200 apartments for construction in Ramot. Washington said that move would further hinder efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with a two-state solution.

At the beginning of the month, the higher-level Jerusalem District Planning and Building Committee approved the construction of 500 apartments in the capital’s Ramat Shlomo neighborhood, also over the Green Line in East Jerusalem. The US swiftly condemned the decision to go ahead with the project.

Israel captured East Jerusalem and the Old City in 1967 and maintains that it is now part of the unified capital of Israel. The Palestinians claim East Jerusalem and the Old City as their capital.

AFP and AP contributed to this report.