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Israel Will Not Accept Any Restriction on Building in Jerusalem

[Jerusalem Post] Herb Keinon and Hilary Leila Krieger - One senior Israeli government official said that Netanyahu was "willing to show the greatest possible restraint concerning building in the territories, and has even received praise for that restraint. But that is in the West Bank. Gilo is in Jerusalem, and that is the capital." While the prime minister would accept a temporary moratorium on new housing in the West Bank to facilitate the relaunch of negotiations with the Palestinians, he would not place any limitations on building in Jerusalem. It is highly unusual for the U.S. to criticize construction in Gilo, a neighborhood straddling the Green Line in the city's south and considered noncontroversial among Israelis. Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin noted Tuesday: "The right to build in all of unified Jerusalem is not questioned in Israel." Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat said: "Israeli law does not discriminate between Arabs and Jews, or between east and west of the city....The demand to cease construction just for Jews is illegal, also in the U.S. and any other enlightened place in the world." Initially the White House statement was titled a response to "the approval of settlement expansion in Jerusalem," but the version the White House later posted on its Web site does not use the word "settlement."
2009-11-18 06:00:00
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