Following the Jerusalem Municipality's promotion of a new 15,000-home Jewish neighborhood, the District Planning and Building Committee has deposited a plan for the construction of 770 new housing units beyond the green line between the Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo and Beit Jala. This plan is for part of the 1,200 housing unit Mordot Gilo neighborhood.The project is facing the Cremisan monastery, near where the separation fence is currently being built.
North of this project, infrastructure works have been underway for about 700 housing units in the western Mordot Gilo neighborhood, approved for deposit in December 2015. It was submitted for objections last week.
Chairman of the District Planning and Building Committee Meir Turgeman told "Walla News" that he will do whatever he can to "keep young people in the city." "I am not interested in what is taking place on the political level," he said. "I promote all of the plans in Jerusalem in order to keep young people in the city and build in Jerusalem, everywhere, for Jews and Arabs."
The Ir Amim organization responded, "Talks about an ostensible halt in construction are followed by a line of unilateral Israeli moves. This policy only draws us further from the peace and security the residents of Israel need."
In the past month, Israel's Prime Minister and Minister Of Defense decided to move forward with the construction of 800 housing units in Ma'ale Adumim and Jerusalem in response to the wave of terrorist attacks. The US State Department has condemned this decision. "This will be the latest step in what appears to be a systematic process of land seizures, settlement expansions and legalization of outposts that is fundamentally undermining the prospects for a two-state solution."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on July 24, 2016
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