Jerusalem housing units to be approved

JERUSALEM, Jan. 16 (UPI) -- A Jerusalem planning commission is expected to approve the construction of 1,400 housing units in a neighborhood on its southwestern outskirts, officials said.

The plan dubbed Gilo: Southern Slopes, calls for the building of 1,400 housing units in an area between Gilo, a large residential district on Jerusalem's south western outskirts and Mount Gilo, Haaretz said Sunday.

The planning commission is expected to approve construction of 780 housing units in the first stage and more than 600 housing units in a later stage, the Israeli daily said. The plan also calls for the construction of public parks and commercial centers, the report said.

The new project will expand the neighborhood's boundaries toward the West Bank and not toward Israel, the newspaper quoted an unnamed expert familiar with the plans saying.

Meir Margalit, a Jerusalem councilman declared if approved, the construction will add another nail to the coffin of the peace process, Haaretz said.

"This is a more dangerous plan than its predecessors because of the mass of construction planned, and also because it is construction on the edges of Gilo and not inside the borders of the neighborhood," Margalit told the paper.

Over a year ago the United States strongly opposed another plan to construct housing units on the neighborhood's western slopes, the newspaper said, noting it was the first of a series of clashes over Jerusalem's plans to build new housing in East Jerusalem suburbs. The tensions culminated with the approval of housing units in a project in Ramat Shlomo during U.S. Vice President Joe Biden's visit to Israel.

Gilo has a population of 40,000 and was built on land captured by Israel in the Six Days War. Mount Gilo is a communal village located south of Jerusalem and west of Bethlehem.