OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- The Israeli interior ministry’s planning and building committee approved the plan to build 1,600 new housing units in Ramat Shlomo settlement, east of occupied Jerusalem.
The Hebrew radio reported Tuesday that the interior ministry considers the approval a technical procedure.
The approval of this plan raised the ire of the American administration which said that the building in disputed lands would undermine the trust it is trying to build between the Palestinians and Israelis.
This plan was approved ahead of the imminent visit to be made by US envoy George Mitchell to the region in order to restart the peace talks between Mahmoud Abbas and Israelis.
For his part, the Israeli minister of intelligence stated that the settlement expansion in the West Bank would continue through using smart ways in order to avoid causing a crisis in the negotiations with the Palestinians.
He emphasized during a visit to the settlement of Efrat and Gush Etzion on Tuesday that the settlement expansion would continue after a three-month freeze and stressed the need for building in places he described as part of Israel’s land.
Meanwhile, the Israeli occupation authority (IOA) demolished Wednesday morning Palestinian structures in the village of Keseifa in the Negev area at the pretext of unlicensed construction.
Local sources said that Israeli bulldozers demolished eight shops belonging to a Palestinian citizen in the village after a large force of Israeli troops stormed the area and imposed a cordon on a neighborhood there known as 31.
River to Sea
Uprooted Palestinian
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