JERUSALEM (Press Release)–The municipality of Jerusalem has approved construction of four apartment buildings next to a Jewish seminary in the eastern part of the city. “As far as the municipality is concerned, building can begin,” a spokesman for Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat said after a planning committee gave the go-ahead on Monday for the complex to be erected on the Mount of Olives.
The Palestinian Authority called the decision an attempt to undermine the peace process. A spokesman for President Mahmoud Abbas said the project proved that “Israel is trying to undermine Arab and international efforts aimed at saving the peace process.”
The Israeli capital is excluded from the 10-month moratorium the government announced in November on housing in Jewish settlements in the West Bank. In Washington, the White House said neither the Israelis nor the Palestinians should engage in actions that could preempt a peace deal.
Meanwhile, Israeli television reported that Defense Minister Ehud Barak had received dozens of death threats from people who reject the settlement moratorium. An official said that security measures for the minister and leader of the Labor Party had been stepped up.
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Preceding provided by World Jewish Congress