Israel to build hundreds of new houses in east Jerusalem

[ProgressiveMuslim]

2 days ago

JERUSALEM (AFP) — Israel will build 884 more houses in east Jerusalem, the housing ministry said on Sunday, in a move that enraged the Palestinians who have demanded the area as the capital of their promised state.

"We will invite tenders for the construction of 121 housing units in Har Homa and 763 others in Pisgat Zeev," ministry spokesman Eran Sidis told AFP, referring to two neighbourhoods in Arab east Jerusalem.

Israel occupied and annexed the eastern half of the city after the 1967 war in a move not recognised by the international community or the Palestinians, who have demanded it as their capital in recently revived peace talks.

"These offers are being published for the occasion of Jerusalem Day (on Monday), celebrating the 41st anniversary of the reunification of the city," Sidis said, referring to the occupation of east Jerusalem in the Six-Day War.

Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolianski told public radio the move was necessary to address the "urgent need for housing for the Jewish population."

But Palestinians slammed the decision, saying it undermined peace efforts.

A statement from the office of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas called the decision a "dangerous threat" to the peace process which it said "cannot advance without a complete and total halt to settlement activity."

The Israeli settlement watchdog Peace Now also criticised the move, which it called part of a larger effort by the Israeli right to preempt the division of the city in a final peace deal.

"More settlements in Jerusalem will mean that the physical ability to have compromises between Israelis and Palestinians will be harder," Peace Now director Yariv Oppenheimer told AFP.


http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5h4zAakye_VlHeyANxTM68ZLKkvmQ

[ProgressiveMuslim]

1. Just in case anyone thought the gov't of Israel might actually

be interested in peace....

[dipsydoodle]

2. Would that be in addition to yesterdays 900 ?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=124x213898

[henank]

3. No. n/t

[Sezu]

4. Since pretty much everything "undermines peace efforts."

for Palestinians including the mere existence of Israel, what's the diff?

[notfullofit]

5. International consensus

"There is no contradiction whatsoever between this building and moving forward on the peace process," Olmert's spokesman Mark Regev said. "Israel never committed itself to a freeze in Jerusalem. On the contrary, we always said that a construction freeze in Jerusalem was unrealistic and impossible. Jerusalem has a dynamic population with growing needs."

Regev said there was an "international consensus" that in any final status arrangement, the Jewish neighborhoods of Jerusalem would remain part of Israel, and building in those neighborhoods in no way undermined the peace process.

Saying that he doubted the issue would take up much time in the Olmert-Abbas talks, Regev said, "There is no doubt that the Palestinians understand this issue more than their public pronouncements would lead one to believe."

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=121204144989...

[Vegasaurus]

6. There was always going to be a land swap

as part of a peace agreement.

They were never going to disband the large settlement blocs, particularly those in Jerusalem.

However, I do not think continued settlement building is any more productive than continued rockets, although the latter are substantially more dangerous.