Prime Minister Ehud Olmert denied on Sunday any knowledge of plans approved by the Housing Ministry to build 240 apartments in the Jerusalem suburb of Maaleh Adumim, claiming he had not been informed about the project.
The proposed 2008 budget, which was passed in August by the cabinet in a 21-5 vote, lists the ministry allocation for the project, along with plans to build 500 new apartments in the southern Jerusalem neighborhood of Har Homa. The allocation for Har Homa comes in addition to a previous housing project to build 207 units that were already approved ten years ago but only received the final permits earlier this month.
The Palestinian Authority claims the two neighborhoods belong to sections of Jerusalem which it plans to use for the capital of a new state. The area was reunited with the rest of the capital after it was recovered along with a number of other neighborhoods in Jerusalem during the 1967 Six Day War. It was formally annexed to the State of Israel shortly thereafter.