Shaked: Jerusalem construction plans only delayed by 1 week

Interior Minister postpones entire construction approval agenda for next week after PMO removes construction for Jews from agenda.

ISRAEL NATIONAL NEWS

Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked responded to reports that the Prime Minister’s Office has instructed to remove from the agenda of the Jerusalem District Committee the plan to build 2,000 housing units for Jewish residents in eastern Jerusalem and said that the plans would only be delayed by one week,

Shaked reportedly refused to remove the plans from the agenda and instead rejected the entire agenda for the week, which includes construction plans for both Jews and Arabs.

“I will not allow construction plans to be affected only for Jews on my watch. Therefore, I decided to postpone all plans for this one week,” Shaked said.

It was reported earlier that the Prime Minister’s Office ordered the removal from the agenda of the Jerusalem District Planning and Construction Committee of plans to build about 2,000 housing units for Jews in eastern Jerusalem.

Prime Minister Yair Lapid’s office realized that the plan was scheduled to be brought for approval next Monday and decided ahead of the visit of US President Joe Biden tomorrow to remove it from the agenda.

At the same time, as part of a goodwill gesture approved by Defense Minister Benny Gantz, no less than six outline plans for Palestinian Arabs will be approved for construction in Area C.

This is as part of measures announced by the coordinator of government operations in the territories, Major General Ghassan Alian, in preparation for Biden’s visit.