Photo: AFP

The Jerusalem municipal planning commission on Wednesday gave its final green light to a project to construct more than 2,600 units in Givat HaMatos, a settlement area in East Jerusalem, said an Israeli non-governmental organization. This will become the first new settlement in East Jerusalem in the last 12 years. Israel captured East Jerusalem during a 1967 war and later annexed it in a move never recognized by the international community. Palestinian negotiator Mohamed Shtayyed warned that the Israeli settlement expansion in East Jerusalem is forcing Palestine to file formal complaints in the International Criminal Court (ICC). Palestine can now approach this court since the UN General Assembly upgraded its status last month to an observer non-member state. The construction is sure to spur more anger from Palestinians since it closes a loop of near-by Jewish settlements, isolating this area from the rest of the West Bank.