Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat
Jerusalem Mayor Nir BarkatFlash 90

The Jerusalem District Planning and Building Committee approved on Sunday 671 new housing units in various Jerusalem neighborhoods.

Previous discussions regarding the approval of new Jerusalem housing units were canceled in late December, reportedly at the request of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.

324 new housing units will be built in Ramot, and 174 in Ramat Shlomo. In Pisgat Ze'ev, 68 new housing units will be built.

In Jerusalem's Arab neighborhoods, 49 new units will be built in Beit Hanina and 14 in Wadi al-Joz. 24 new housing units will be built in Umm Lisun and Umm Tuba.

In the Jabel Mukaber neighborhood, which is known as a terrorist breeding ground, seven new units will be approved. Four others will be approved in Beit Safafa, three in Sur Baher, and four others in At-Tur.

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat said, "We have suffered eight difficult years of Obama, who pressured Israel to freeze building. Even though the Jerusalem municipality never froze building in the city, many times we were not given government approval, and sometimes homes were not put on the market because of US pressure.

"I hope that era is over, and that from now on we will continue to build and develop Jerusalem for the good of its residents, Jewish and Arab alike. We must strengthen our sovereignty over Israel's capital and create a unified Jerusalem.

"We must also help young couples, because that is the right thing to do," Barkat concluded.