Jerusalem (Reuters): Israel approved building permits on Sunday for hundreds of homes in three East Jerusalem settlements.
The housing projects, on land that the Palestinians seek as part of a future state, had been taken off the Jerusalem municipality's agenda in December at the last minute at the request of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in order to avoid further censure from the administration of Barack Obama.
Israel's right-wing expects Trump's attitude towards settlements built in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, areas Israel captured in a 1967 war, to be far more supportive than that of his predecessor.
Netanyahu said he would hold his first conversation with Trump since he took office, by telephone on Sunday. "Many matters face us, the Israeli-Palestinian issue, the situation in Syria, the Iranian threat," he said in broadcast remarks at the start of his weekly cabinet meeting.
Jerusalem's City Hall approved the building permits for more than 560 units in the urban settlements of Pisgat Zeev, Ramat Shlomo and Ramot, areas annexed to Jerusalem in a move unrecognized internationally.
