By DPA,
Jerusalem : Israel said Sunday it intends building nearly 900 new homes in occupied East Jerusalem and a spokesman for Housing Minister Ze’ev Boim said the tenders for their construction will be published next week.
Some 121 homes will be built in the Pisgat Zeev location, and a further 763 homes are planned for the Har Homa locality.
Palestinians want East Jerusalem, which Israel captured from Jordan in the 1967 Six Day War, as the capital of their future state.
A spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas described the Israeli decision as “dangerous” and a “flagrant attack on the occupied Palestinian territories”.
“Any construction and living in these settlement blocs amounts to a violation of International Humanitarian Law,” the spokesman said in a statement sent to the media.
The international road map peace plan, which is being implemented congruent to the renewed Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations, calls on Israel to halt settlement activity in the territories captured in the 1967 war.
Israel annexed East Jerusalem shortly after capturing it in June 1967, and considers all of Jerusalem as its “eternal, united capital”.
The future of Jerusalem, and especially control of the Muslim holy sites in the Old City, are one of the core issues in the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, which were renewed at the turn of the year after a seven-year hiatus.