40,000 new homes in Jerusalem
Pastor Dale Morgan
*40,000 new homes in Jerusalem*
By Sylvie Lanteaume in Jerusalem
June 16, 2008 07:58pm
Article from: Agence France-Presse
ISRAELI authorities have approved a plan to build 40,000 new homes in
Jerusalem over the next decade, as US Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice condemned Jewish settlement activity in the occupied West Bank.
The plan was approved by the National Planning and Building Committee
yesterday, municipal officials said.
New homes will be built in the annexed Arab eastern sector of Jerusalem,
but municipality spokesman Yossi Gottesman declined to say how many.
Israel seized the sector in the 1967 Middle East war, and the annexation
is not recognised by the international community.
A total of 245,000 Palestinians live in east Jerusalem alongside more
than 200,000 Jewish settlers. Continued Israeli settlement construction
in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem is seen as a major hurdle
in peace efforts.
Earlier today, Israeli media reported that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert
had told Ms Rice that Israel would continue building new homes in
occupied East Jerusalem.
While Israel would not confiscate more Palestinian land, it would build
in Jewish neighbourhoods of Jerusalem it expected to keep as part of any
final settlement with the Palestinians, he told Ms Rice.
Mr Olmert and Ms Rice met last night, after the secretary of state had
earlier held talks with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
At both meetings Ms Rice criticised Israeli settlement plans, saying
they had the potential to "harm" the ongoing peace talks with the
Palestinians.
Ms Rice will today hold a one-on-one meeting with Israeli Defence
Minister Ehud Barak where she is expected to press for the removal of
more than 600 checkpoints and roadblocks scattered across the West Bank.
The two were then to be joined by Palestinian prime minister Salam
Fayyad, who has been heading up efforts to revitalise the West Bank
economy and the deployment of newly-trained Palestinian forces.