REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JERUSALEM - Israel has given final approval to 1,000 new homes for Israelis in Jewish settlements in the West Bank. Earlier Wednesday, a Jerusalem municipal committee gave its approval for a new settlement in east Jerusalem. The planned construction on occupied territories claimed by the Palestinians has drawn fierce international condemnation.
Ariel Rosenberg, spokesman for the Ministry of Housing and Construction, says the housing units are among 3,000 new settlement homes Israel promised to build in in response to the Palestinians' bid for upgraded status at the United Nations last month.
Rosenberg says in the coming months, Israel will issue tenders for building in a number of settlements, some deep inside the West Bank.
Hagit Ofran of anti-settlement watchdog group Peace Now says it would take about a year before building begins.
Israel captured east Jerusalem in a 1967 war and annexed it as part of its capital in a move never recognised internationally. Palestinians want the area to be capital of a state they seek to establish in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, land also captured by Israel.
Netanyahu vows to build despite criticism
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday his government would press ahead with expanding Jewish settlements around Jerusalem despite Western criticism of its plan to build 6,000 more homes in territory Palestinians seek for a state.
"We are going to build in Jerusalem for all its residents, this is something that has been done by all previous governments and this is something that my government will continue to do," Netanyahu said in a meeting with foreign ambassadors.
"Jerusalem has been the capital of the Jewish people for 3,000 years," Netanyahu said. "Imagine that you would limit construction in your own capital, it doesn't make sense."
Netanyahu launched his latest settlement expansion push after Palestinians won de facto recognition as a state in a United Nations vote last month.
In addition to several thousand housing units approved earlier this month, Israeli media reported that initial approval was granted on Wednesday for construction of another 3,400 units in Jerusalem and in the West Bank.
Israeli analysts see the settlement drive as also an effort by Netanyahu to enhance support for his right-wing Likud party against other hawkish rivals in a Jan. 22 parliamentary election he is expected to win.
Mark Regev, a spokesman for Netanyahu, said only 3,000 settlement housing units had as yet received formal cabinet approval, and that it could take years to until more construction was launched. In a written statement to reporters, Regev said the housing units being planned were "in Jerusalem and the settlement blocs" Israel seeks to keep under any peace deal.
Nimr Hammad, a spokesman for President Mahmoud Abbas told Palestinian radio the Palestinians may protest "to the (UN) Security Council and seek a resolution there" against Israel's latest settlement plans.
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