A Jerusalem municipal panel approved on Wednesday construction of a four-story building in east Jerusalem after postponing a vote on permits for hundreds of other homes in the Israeli-annexed area, an NGO said. Ir Amim, which opposes Israeli settlement in territory where Palestinians seek to establish a state, said the structure would be erected on a vacant plot in Silwan, a Palestinian neighborhood where settlers have been expanding an enclave. 'Today, while attention has been focused on the removal of ... building permits ... the committee proceeded to approve a controversial project in one of the most flammable neighborhoods in east Jerusalem,' Ir Amim said in a statement shortly before US Secretary of State John Kerry was to make a policy speech on Israeli-Palestinian peace.
