An Israeli state planning fee on Monday halted plans for a controversial settlement project in East Jerusalem, amid stress from the Biden administration and activists who blasted the housing plan as an impediment to peace.
The Israeli authorities had backed a plan to construct greater than 9,000 new homes at Atarot, a proposed settlement situated close to the positioning of the deserted airport and the Palestinian city of Qalandia.
In a brief assertion on Monday, the Jerusalem District Planning Committee mentioned that the Ministry of Environmental Safety would wish to conduct an environmental impression survey earlier than settlement plans might be greenlit. That course of is anticipated to take a few 12 months.
Israeli media reported that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed his issues over the housing plan throughout a telephone name with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett final week.
The Palestinians envision the Gaza Strip and West Financial institution as a part of a future state, with East Jerusalem as its capital. Greater than 440,000 Jewish settlers at present stay within the West Financial institution on territory captured by Israel within the 1967 conflict.
Most of the international community views the settlements as a violation of worldwide regulation that threaten the probabilities of a two-state resolution to the Palestinian-Israeli battle.
“We hope the federal government takes benefit of the time to reexamine the injury the plan has on the possibility for peace, the event of Jerusalem, and Israel’s relations with the US,” anti-settlement group Peace Now said.
