All news

Israeli PM orders to construct over 1,000 new housing units in East Jerusalem

The plan announced by Netanyahu involves implementing infrastructure projects in the West Bank, including the construction of 12 new roads to be used by both settlers and Palestinians

TEL AVIV, October 27. /TASS/. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced plans to construct 1,060 new housing units in the Palestinian territories on the West Bank of the Jordan River, local media reported on Monday.

The move has been pushed by the council of Jewish settlements of the West Bank and Israel’s key partner in the government coalition, the Jewish Home, the country’s religious Zionist political party, led by Naftali Bennett.

According to sources close to the prime minister, some 660 new units are to be constructed in the northern neighborhood of Ramot Shlomo, and another 400 in Har Homa in East Jerusalem.

Netanyahu has also ordered preparations for implementing infrastructure projects in the West Bank, including the construction of 12 new roads to be used by both settlers and Palestinians.

The program is to be discussed in detail at a special meeting of the Netanyahu administration on October 29, to be attended by Minister of Housing and Construction Uri Ariel, Finance Minister Yair Lapid and Transport Minister Yisrael Katz.

The Jewish Home and the council of Jewish settlements of the West Bank call on Netanyahu to announce tenders for construction of over 2,000 new units in settlements in the West Bank. The prime minister has not approved the plans.

The continued construction in the Jewish settlements in the West Bank, including in East Jerusalem, is one of the key obstacles to the peaceful settlement of the decades-long Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

The international community urges Israel to abandon settlement activity which hampers efforts to resolve the conflict based on the principle of two states for two peoples.