国际英语新闻：Israel approves east Jerusalem housing plan: reports

JERUSALEM, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- An expansion plan for a Jewish neighborhood in the eastern part of Jerusalem has been approved by a local committee on Tuesday, Israeli media reported.

Local Israeli municipal planning committee gave green light for building some 900 new housing units in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo, located beyond the Green Line, according to local news service the Ynet.

    The plan is still open for the public to raise reservations in the following 60 days, the report said.

    The approval comes in the wake of a demand from the United States on Israel to totally freeze its settlement construction activities in the West Bank as well as in east Jerusalem.

    Local daily Yedioth Ahronoth reported earlier Tuesday that the U.S. special envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell made clear America's objection to the construction in Gilo neighborhood during a meeting with the delegates of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

    Jewish neighborhoods in east Jerusalem, captured by Israel in 1967 and later annexed, are considered by international community as Israeli settlements and one of the main obstacles to Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

    Netanyahu has insisted that his government will not halt construction in Jerusalem, while the Palestinians want the east section of the holy city as capital of their future state.