25 October 2017•Update: 25 October 2017
JERUSALEM
An Israeli planning committee on Wednesday approved plans to build 176 new settlement units in occupied East Jerusalem.
The new homes will be constructed in Nof Tzion settlement in Jabel Mukhabar neighborhood in eastern Jerusalem, according to Israel’s Channel 7.
With the new units, the channel said, the settlement, which currently has 91 units, will grow to 267 homes out of some 480 total planned for the project.
Wednesday’s approval of the new housing units would make Nof Zion the largest Jewish settlement in the heart of Arab neighborhoods in East Jerusalem, according to Israeli anti-settlement group Peace Now.
Israel occupied East Jerusalem during the 1967 Middle East War. It later annexed the historic city in 1980, claiming it as the capital of the self-proclaimed Jewish state – a move never recognized by the international community.
International law views the West Bank and East Jerusalem as occupied territories, considering all Jewish settlement building on the land to be illegal.
Palestinians accuse Israel of waging an aggressive campaign to “Judaize” the city with the aim of effacing its Arab and Islamic identity and ultimately driving out its Palestinian inhabitants.
