First Residents to Enter Flashpoint Settlement Southeast of JerusalemThe first residents of the Israeli settlement of Har Homa, south of Jerusalem, will move into their homes in October, Army Radio reported on Thursday.Har Homa, the largest settlement on the outskirts of Jerusalem sitting on a West Bank hilltop near Bethlehem, used to be a focus of bitter protest by the Palestinians, who accused it of being part of an Israeli plan to Judaize the Arab East Jerusalem. Following the outbreak of the Israeli-Palestinian bloody violence last September, home purchases in Har Homa dropped almost to zero. However, following an Israeli decision to grant special incentives to prospective buyers, Har Homa home sales showed a significant rise last month, bringing the number of purchased houses to more than 730, said the radio. In February 1997, the Ministerial Committee on Jerusalem, headed by then Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, approved the construction of an estimated 2,600 housing units in Har Homa on the disputed land in southeastern Jerusalem, which Israel occupied in the 1967 Middle East War. |
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