An official in the White House reacts angrily to news report that Israel approves construction of 300 new homes in Jerusalem.
An official in the White House reacted angrily on Wednesday, after Channel 10 News
reported that Israel had approved tenders for the construction of 300
new homes in Jerusalem and plans to build more housing units beyond the
“Green Line”.
The report explained that the tenders in question, for construction in Jerusalem’s Ramot neighborhood, were published last November,
right after the Palestinian Authority’s unilateral move at the United
Nations which got it upgraded to the status of a non-member observer
state, and before U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry began his latest
push for the renewal of peace talks.
Channel 10 cited a Housing Ministry
document it had obtained and which discusses the publications of tenders
for another 797 new housing units in the Gilo neighborhood.
"Given the Ministry’s decision to immediately
market 797 housing units on the site, there is an urgent need to
complete the details of the design, as the marketing will be published
in the coming weeks," says the document.
A White House official told Channel 10 in
response, "We do not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli
settlement construction, which undermines efforts to achieve peace and
are contrary to the obligations that Israel undertook upon itself.”
"It is the President’s opinion that Israel should
recognize that the settlement policy is not conducive to achieving peace
and hampers the Palestinians chances of establishing a state on
sustainable borders," added the official. "In our opinion, the two sides
must take confidence-building measures, which will make it possible to
resume negotiations."
Meanwhile, Yossi Deitch, a member of the Jerusalem City Council, welcomed the decision to build in Jerusalem.
"We are delighted that there is marketing in Ramot,
and we turn to the Prime Minister of Israel and tell him, ‘You have
thousands of more housing units in Jerusalem’. Jerusalem will not be
divided to east and west. All of Jerusalem is the capital of the State
of Israel forever," Deitch told Channel 10.
In recent weeks, Kerry has been pushing the sides to resume peace talks, and reports last week indicated that he has proposed that Israel freeze construction east of the 1949 armistice line so the talks can resume.
It was not clear if Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu responded
favorably to Kerry’s suggestion of a new construction freeze. Israel
formerly froze construction for several months in an attempt to bring
the PA back to the negotiating table. The PA agreed to talks shortly
before the freeze ended, but refused to continue meeting when the
construction ban was not renewed.
Netanyahu has reportedly put a stop to new construction
in Judea and Samaria (Shomron), but has not issued a public ban on
construction, and has not stopped construction for Israelis in
Jerusalem.
It is also not clear if PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has accepted
Kerry’s proposal. Since the last construction freeze Abbas has announced
other demands that he considers preconditions to talks with Israel.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/168450#.UaaBWdi_g8U
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