Israel’s Interior Ministry approved the building of 1,600 new housing units in eastern Jerusalem.
The units will be built in the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo, according to a statement from the Interior Ministry’s Jerusalem district planning committee released Tuesday. The neighborhood is located over the Green Line. There is a 60 days appeals period on the approval, according to reports
The new housing approval comes on the same day that U.S. Vice President Joe Biden met with Israeli leaders and praised Israel and the Palestinians for agreeing to enter into proximity talks.
“With such an announcement, how can you build trust? This is destroying our efforts to work with Mr. Mitchell,” chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said, referring to George Mitchell, the U.S. special Middle East envoy who is serving as intermediary for the talks, the Associated Press reported.
“It’s a really disastrous situation. I hope that this will be an eye opener for all in the international community about the need to have the Israeli government stop such futile exercises.”
