Israel plans to build 20,000 new homes for Jews in a settlement in Arab East Jerusalem, angering Palestinians. An Israeli official said yesterday that the plan foresees three separate Jewish neighbourhoods being set up on land Israel annexed after the 1967 Middle East War in a move that has not been recognised internationally. Some 200,000 Jews already live in the eastern part of Jerusalem among about 230,000 Palestinians who, under an agreement forged after Israel’s capture of the city, are legal residents.
Yehoshua Pollak, a deputy mayor and chairman of the Jerusalem municipality’s planning and construction committee, said the proposed units would provide housing mostly for young Israeli couples. Palestinian Chief Negotiator Saeb Erekat condemned the plan, saying: “This destroys the efforts exerted to revive the peace process. The Israeli government must choose between settlements and peace. They can not have both.”
(Reuters)
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3 Responses
Behind all the bluster from “both sides” is, IMHO, a simple question. Who owns this land now? Was it taken from anyone, or was it wasteland/grass?
If no one was using it anyway, there is no reason to stop Israel from putting up housing. The Arabs should be happy since, they only stand to gain those brand new buildings if they ever get sovereignty there. Anyway, they’d probably destroy them just like they did to the Gaza multi-million dollar greenhouses, so what do they care.
“Arab East Jerusalem” is, from an historical viewpoint, doubly inaccurate. It is not Arab anymore than Brooklyn is Jewish – Brooklyn was never a Jewish homeland, though many Jews happen to live there now. Also, Jerusalem was never divided into an East and West until the Jordanian occupiers did so.
The Arabs will never be happy as long as there are Jews living. Let them remain in their misery.
We should just ignore them and do what we need to do for ourselves.
Maybe I missed something but why do they keep calling them settlements? They are cities or even as the heiliga Lakewood crowd calls them, developments.
The other point is what are they doing in the first place here? All that will happen is as soon as some peace loving Israeli Govt wants to make peace with them, this is the first land to go. Can anyone spell Gaza again?
Sometimes I wonder which side has the sechel.