The Jerusalem municipality is pushing to build settlement units prior to the inauguration of US president-elect Joe Biden on January 20, a report has said.
Settlement units are planned in Har Homa, Givat Hamatos and Atarot.
Biden’s ire in 2010 yielded an effective freeze on construction in East Jerusalem with any new projects also requiring approval of the Prime Minister’s Office, which was not granted.
The freeze was lifted when Donald Trump took office in 2016 and the controversial Ramat Shlomo project was eventually completed, along with other plans in East Jerusalem neighborhoods such as Gilo, Pisgat Ze’ev, and Har Homa, Haaretz reported.
Last February, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the approval of construction in Givat Hamatos, but since then three delays have occurred, prompting criticism from the Israeli right.
Aviv Tatarsky of the Left-wing NGO Ir Amim said that Netanyahu is taking advantage of Trump's final weeks in power.
Jerusalem municipality agreed to build 108 new settlement units in what is known as the "Ramat Shlomo" neighborhood.
The Hebrew Risht Kan Channel reported that this neighborhood, which lies outside the Green Line "East of Jerusalem", is mainly for the ultra-Orthodox, and the promotion of building in it had been previously prohibited due to differences with the Obama administration.
The channel quoted reliable sources as saying that the local planning and construction committee will soon build more housing units in the neighborhood, amid expectations for the move to be before Biden reaches the White House.
They added that the decision to approve the new housing units is not political.
