Israel goes ahead with homes plan after Obama’s term ends
Israel approved building permits for hundreds of homes in three East Jerusalem settlements yesterday, two days after US President Donald Trump took office, expecting him to pull back on the last administration’s criticism of such developments.
The housing projects, on land that the Palestinians seek as part of a future state, had been taken off the Jerusalem municipality’s agenda in December at the last minute at the request of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in order to avoid further censure from the administration of Barack Obama.
Israel’s right-wing expects Trump’s attitude towards settlements built in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, areas Israel captured in a 1967 war, to be far more supportive than that of his predecessor.
Jerusalem’s City Hall approved the building permits for more than 560 units in the urban settlements of Pisgat Zeev, Ramat Shlomo and Ramot, areas annexed to Jerusalem in a move unrecognised internationally.
Municipal planning and building committee chairman Meir Turgeman said that the permits had been held up until the end of the Obama administration.
Turgeman said there were hundreds more units waiting for approval. The Palestinians immediately denounced the move.
In its final weeks, the Obama administration angered the Israeli government by withholding a traditional US veto of an antisettlement resolution at the United Nations Security Council, enabling the measure to pass.
Trump’s nominee to be US ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, echoed his condemnation of the world body over its treatment of Israel at her Senate confirmation hearing last week.
In a proposal that has drawn a Palestinian outcry, Trump has also pledged to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Israel sees all Jerusalem as its capital but most of the world does not, seeing its final status as a matter for peace negotiations.
The Palestinians have said an embassy move would kill any prospect for peace. Negotiations broke down in 2014.
