Official says Israel has Approved 7900 Housing Units in Jerusalem

JERUSALEM, August 11, 2011 (WAFA) - The all-Israeli Jerusalem municipality has this month approved the construction of 7900 new housing units in East Jerusalem settlements, Thursday said Ahmad Rweidi, an advisor on Jerusalem affairs at President Mahmoud Abbas’ office.

He told WAFA that the almost 8000 housing units were part of 50,000 units planned to be built before 2020 in Jerusalem.

He refuted Israeli allegations that the new construction aims to solve the current high rent and housing crisis in Israel.

It is a political maneuver to isolate Jerusalem entirely from the West Bank and to preempt the Palestinian plan to seek United Nations full membership of a Palestinian state within 1967 borders in September, as well as to create chaos in the Palestinian Territory, he said.

Rweidi said that Netanyahu wants to solve the internal problems in Israel at the expense of the Palestinians by urging Israelis to live in settlements in the West Bank and Jerusalem.

The announcement of building thousands of housing units in Jerusalem comes in line with the Israeli campaign that targets Palestinians living in Jerusalem, especially al-Bustan area of Silwan, which it wants to erase, Rweidi noted.

'It's not coincidental or arbitrary to decide the fate of al-Bustan in September; it aims to put the region in chaos to abort the Palestinian plan to seek UN recognition of a Palestinian state,' he added.

Rweidi considered settlement construction in Jerusalem a 'war crime' because Jerusalem is an occupied city. He stressed UN and Geneva Convention signatories' responsibility toward Jerusalem and called on the UN to pressure Israel to halt its settlement activities.

He also called on the Arab League, the Islamic Summit and Arab governments to take immediate action to protect Jerusalem from the Israeli danger of creating facts on the ground for its benefit.

WAFA