Israel Announces East Jerusalem Settlements

[Bloodrock44]

So Israel is going to build settlements in East Jerusalem. Who woulda thunk it?

Israel announces east Jerusalem building project

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel on Wednesday announced new construction in east Jerusalem — an area the Palestinians demand for their future state — just hours after it freed a group of Palestinian prisoners as part of a deal to set in motion peace talks.

The building is seen as an attempt by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to make up for the prisoner release, for which he has been sharply criticized at home. The prisoners were jailed for deadly attacks on Israelis.

Interior Ministry spokeswoman Lital Apter said on Wednesday that four projects are being promoted, including 1,500 housing units in Ramat Shlomo in east Jerusalem.

The release of 26 Palestinians after midnight Tuesday was the second of four prisoner releases meant to restart Israeli-Palestinian talks in an effort to reach a final agreement between the two sides.

The Palestinians had long refused to resume peace negotiations with Israel unless it ends construction in territories that Palestinians seek for their state. Israel refused, insisting that settlements and other core issues, including security, should be resolved through negotiations.

The prisoner release was part of an agreement brokered by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, which brought Israel and the Palestinians back to the negotiating table after a five-year hiatus. The talks had been paralyzed since 2008.

Earlier this year, Kerry managed to persuade Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to drop the settlement issue as a condition for restarting negotiations. In exchange, Israel agreed to the prisoner release.

In all, 104 Palestinian convicts are to be released in four rounds over the coming months.

 

[waltky]

More settlements to be built in West Bank...

Israel to build 1,500 more homes in settlements
Thursday 5 June 2014 08 ~ Housing minister says plan for units in West Bank and east Jerusalem is in response to new Palestinian unity government

Israel's housing ministry has announced new plans for almost 1,500 new settlement housing units in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, described as a "fitting Zionist response" to the new Palestinian unity government, backed by the Islamic militant group Hamas. The announcement by housing minister Uri Ariel was immediately condemned by chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, who accused Israel of planning a "major escalation" in response to the new unity government, and by the US ambassador to Israel, Dan Shapiro. "When Israel is spat upon, it has to do something about it," said Ariel, a far-right member of prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition. Asked who had insulted Israel, he replied: "Our neighbours, and to a certain extent, the world."

The disclosure of the planned settlement construction was described by the justice minister, Tzipi Livni, as a political mistake. Livni was Israel's chief negotiator in the recently collapsed peace talks. She added that the move would "only distance us from the ability to recruit the world against Hamas." The move comes amid the growing and bitter row between Israel and the US which, like the EU and UN, has vowed to continue working with the new Palestinian government. That row in turn has sparked a round of loud recriminations in Israel itself, over Netanyahu's handling of the response to the formation of the new Palestinian government and over what has been seen in some quarters as a US betrayal.

The Israeli justice minister, Tzipi Livni, said the announcement Israel is to build more settlement homes was a 'political mistake'.

The strongest criticism of Netanyahu came from opposition leader Yitzhak Herzog who accused the Israeli prime minister of overseeing "a complete collapse of Israeli foreign policy". "Netanyahu talks and the world no longer listens," he added. His comments came as Israeli anger at Washington continued to grow, with senior officials quoted anonymously in several Israeli media denouncing the US position. "This isn't a failure of Israel diplomacy, it's a knife in the back," one senior official told Maariv. Others accused the US secretary of state, John Kerry, of violating an understanding with Israel not to rush into recognising the Palestinian unity government.

Reports in Hebrew media claim Israeli officials in Washington have appealed directly to supporters in the US Congress to cut funding to the Palestinian Authority. Galia Golan, who heads the Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy compared the current problems between Israel and Washington to diplomatic low points in 1975 and 1991: "Netanyahu has been mistaken in his outlook with regard to the Obama administration all along. And it is a serious mistake. There is a view – we don't need them. But who else would back Israel the way that America has? "And the risk is not that Washington pressures Israel but that it decides to do nothing and allows the European Union to pressure Israel further down the line."

MORE