Israel defies White House anger and approves 1,600 new settler homes in East Jerusalem

Israel has risked facing the White House's wrath after approving a plan to build settler houses that caused a rift with the States last year.



Israel's interior minister has given final approval for a plan to build 1,600 settler homes in East Jerusalem.

The project's announcement last year during a visit by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden caused a diplomatic rift with Washington.

Interior Minister Eli Yishai, right, has announced a plan that angered Washington last year during a trip by Vice President Joe Biden, left, to Israel



The official announcement of the go-ahead from Interior Minister Eli Yishai could weigh on U.S.-led efforts to dissuade the Palestinians from seeking United Nations endorsement of statehood.

The have suspended peace talks over the Israeli settlement construction.

Nabil Abu Rdainah, spokesman for the Palestinian presidency, called on the United States, the European Union and sponsors of the Middle East peace process to pressure the Israeli government to halt the settlement plans.



Settlement disputes have long been a source of tension and the new announcement could see another political rift

Initial approval for the 1,600 housing units in Ramat Shlomo, a religious Jewish settlement in an area of the West Bank annexed to Jerusalem by Israel, was given in March 2010.

The plans cast a shadow on Biden's visit while highlighting differences between U.S. and Israeli plans over this sort of construction.

Biden condemned the Israeli plan at the time and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton bluntly called it an insult.



Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu voiced regret for the timing of that announcement but rejected any curbs on settlement in and around Jerusalem.



Palestinians want East Jerusalem as capital of the state they hope to found in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which Israel occupied in the 1967 Middle East war.



Israel deems all of Jerusalem its capital - a status that is not recognised abroad.



Israel quit Gaza in 2005 but disputes Palestinian claim on all of the West Bank.

Israel has said building would not begin for several years and a housing ministry spokesman gave no timeline for the project's implementation, saying there were 'significant planning procedures' still pending.



The country is currently gripped by escalating protests for cheaper housing, raising speculation that some settlement projects could be sped up.



Peace Now, an anti-settlement Israeli advocacy group, responded to Yishai's move by issuing a statement accusing the government of 'cynically using the current housing crisis in Israel to promote construction in the settlements'.