Tel Aviv (AsiaNews/Agencies) - Israel has approved a plan to build 800 homes near the Gilo settlement, south of East Jerusalem, Peace Now's Hagit Ofran said. This has angered Palestinians who view it as another nail in the coffin of a two-state solution.
Interior Ministry's District Planning Committee gave its final approval and construction should start in the next few months once a tender goes out.
However, the new homes would encroach on East Jerusalem, the capital of any future Palestinian state. "Israel's decision to build 800 housing units is part of an overall Israeli plan which aims to destroy the two-state solution," Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said.
"We ask the international community to save the two-state solution . . . by voting for the Palestinian effort to obtain the status of non-member state at the United Nations," he said, referring to a resolution which is to be put to the UN General Assembly in November.
The Gilo project comes a day after Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said he would support some sections of a government-commissioned report to legalise about 100 Jewish homes in the West Bank.
For the international community, all Jewish settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem captured by Israel in 1967 are illegal.
By contrast, the 89-page Levy report says that Israel's settlement policy in the West Bank is legal and does not military occupation so that international law on construction and settlement does not apply.