Israeli Housing Minister OKs a new settlement near Jerusalem

Wednesday December 19, 2007 12:06 by Ghassan Bannoura - IMEMC News

Ze'ev Boim, the Israeli housing minister had given green light on Wednesday to start building a new settlement near Jerusalem.

Abu Ghinim settlement - file 2007

According to Israeli media the new settlement will be located at lands taken from the Palestinian villages north of Jerusalem. The new settlement will be contestant of 10,000 housing units, the sources said.

Recently the Israeli government had continued to built new and expanded already existent settlements in the West Bank and Jerusalem, The European Union and the United States officials had urged Israel to stop its settlement activity, by deeming such moves as "threatening to the Peace process".

Earlier this week Israeli government officials told Reuters that their government will continue to add houses inside West Bank settlements but will not expand them. They added that Israel do not need further approvals to build new settlements.

Israel had occupied Jerusalem and the West Bank in 1967. Under international law all Israeli settlements built in the city of Jerusalem or around it in addition to those in the West Bank are illegal.

The Israeli Peace Now movement issued a report on Tuesday documenting the ongoing Israeli settlement activities in the West Bank. The report shows that the Israeli government continued to build homes inside Israeli settlements in the West Bank and demolished at least eight Palestinian homes after the Annapolis conference held in Moreland city USA in late November

In Annapolis the Israeli Premier Ehod Olmert and the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas agreed to restart peace talks based on the US brokered Road Map Peace plan. The Road Map Peace plan demands Israel to stop all settlement activity in the Palestinian areas in addition to halting all attacks on the Palestinians, in return the Palestinian Authority headed by Abbas will dismantle all armed Palestinian resistance groups.

jerusalem | israeli settlement | news report ghassanb at imemc dot org