Israel revives plan for 1,600 settler homes in E. Jerusalem

JERUSALEM: Israel has revived a plan to construct 1,600 new settler homes in the east Jerusalem neighbourhood of Ramat Shlomo that raised US objections when it was first announced in 2010, an official said on Monday.

"In the next two weeks the interior ministry's district committee for Jerusalem will convene to discuss the objections to the programme that was approved for deposit over two years ago," interior ministry spokeswoman Efrat Orbach told AFP.

"The committee will then have to decide which of the objections -- if any -- it accepts, and make changes accordingly," she added, in reference to concerns raised by the public.

The Ramat Shlomo project caused a diplomatic rift between Israel and Washington when it was first announced in March 2010 but it has lain dormant since August 2011.

It was initially announced on March 9, 2010, as US Vice President Joe Biden met top Israeli officials in Jerusalem to boost Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

Ramat Shlomo is a Jewish settlement in the mainly Arab eastern sector of Jerusalem which Israel seized in 1967 and later annexed in a move not recognised by the international community.

Monday's announcement comes after the United States and European nations expressed their discontent to Israel over its decision to plan 3,000 more settler homes in the West Bank and east Jerusalem after the Palestinians won upgraded status at the United Nations.

Hagit Ofran of Israel's settlement watchdog denounced the decision to advance the Ramat Shlomo plans.

"The government is continuing to advance anything they can," she told AFP. "They're doing everything they can to avoid a two-state solution."