New housing plans approved for East Jerusalem neighborhood

The Jerusalem municipality approved the construction of 900 housing units in an eastern Jerusalem neighborhood despite U.S. objection.

The city’s muncipal planning committee allowed the plan in Gilo for the four- to five-bedroom apartments on Tuesday, just hours after an Israeli newspaper published an article reporting that the Obama administration objected to the community’s expansion.

Gilo, which is located over the Green Line, has a population over 40,000. The new development, called “Gilo’s western slopes,” is designed to attract more well-off residents, Ha’aretz reported.

On Monday, special U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell, in a meeting in London with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s aide Yitzhak Molcho, asked Israel to stop building in Gilo, according to Yediot Achronot. The newspaper said Molcho rejected the request.

“This is related to a routine procedure of the regional planning committee to approve construction in the Gilo neighborhood of Jerusalem,” officials in Netanyahu’s office reportedly told Yediot. “The Gilo neighborhood is an integral part of Jerusalem, in the same way that the Ramat Eshkol, Rehavia, French Hill, and Pisgat Zeev neighborhoods are part of the united city, and there is no difference between construction in these neighborhoods of Jerusalem and construction in Tel Aviv or Haifa.”