The municipal council of al-Quds (Jerusalem) has approved the construction of 120 new illegal Israeli settler units in the occupied West Bank.

The buildings, whose construction received the go-ahead on Monday, are to pop up in the settlement of Ramot in East al-Quds, AFP reported.

"They approved 120 housing units in Ramot… there were two permits authorized, one for 56 housing units and another for 64," said Pepe Alalu of the Meretz party.

Alalu noted that the municipal committee’s decision did not require Tel Aviv’s endorsement, saying "It’s final."

Tel Aviv occupied and later annexed East al-Quds long side the other Palestinian land in the West Bank in the 1967 Six-Day War. The move has been recognized by the international community

The recent approval is the latest in the relentless wave of Israeli construction work in the city, which Palestinians demand as the capital of their future state.

The decision comes in the face of calls by the United Nations and the European Union which have been denouncing the settlement activities as illegal due to their taking place on occupied Palestinian land.

The Palestinians say that the defiant construction is meant to prevent the establishment of an independent Palestinian state — which has been recognized by many countries.

Israel refused to extend a partial freeze on the settlement expansion projects in late September, thus stalling US-sponsored direct talks with the Palestinian Authority (PA), which had resumed earlier that month in Washington.

Referring to the Monday vote, PA spokesman Ghassan Khatib said the acts of authorization were not unusual, but insisted that it “doesn’t change the fact that this is all illegal and unacceptable."

(Press TV)