Israel's Prime Minister Netanyahu says building in Jerusalem does not affect peace process

[News_Editor]

Israel's Prime Minister Netanyahu says building in Jerusalem does not affect peace process

2010-11-10 04:09:23 GMT+7 (ICT)

NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA (BNO NEWS) -- Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday said that the building and planning policy in Jerusalem has never disrupted the peace process in the last 40 years.

Netanyahu responded to comments made by President Barack Obama in which the U.S. leader warned Israel that the new building plan could obstruct the peace negotiations with the Palestinian Authority.

Israel's Interior Ministry revealed on Monday its plans to establish over 1,300 new housing units in occupied east Jerusalem, as the government plans to expand the Har Homa neighborhood by 978 apartments and to build 320 new apartments in the Ramot neighborhood.

"Israel does not see any connection between the peace process and the building and planning policy in Jerusalem, which hasn't changed for 40 years," Netanyahu said. "Jerusalem isn't a settlement – Jerusalem is the capital of Israel."

Netanyahu added that in the last forty years, Israel has built many projects in all parts of the city and during this period, peace agreements were signed with Egypt and Jordan. The Prime Minister added that also for 17 years, the Israeli government has engaged in peace negotiations with Palestine.

"Israel has never put any sort of limits on construction in Jerusalem, where some 800,000 people reside, and didn't do so during the 10-month settlement freeze in the West Bank either," the Prime Minister added.

Obama criticized the Israeli government after the announcement of its building plan as he believes that the action will not help the peace negotiations. He also expressed his concern on the lack of effort by both sides, Israel and Palestine, to resume peace talks.

On the other hand, Netanyahu said that he is looking forward to meeting U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday in order to discuss the direct peace negotiations process. Netanyahu is currently visiting the U.S. and met with Vice President Joe Biden in New Orleans.

-- © BNO News All rights reserved 2010-11-10

[Renbe]

Netanyahoo spits in the eyes of the international community and proclaims it's not even raining....

The so called Peace Process is misspelled. It should read "Piece Process" : take a piece of Syria, take a piece of Palestine, take a piece of Lebanon, take another piece of Palestine, and so forth, and so forth

[Ulysses G.]

Jerusalem is the capital city of Israel and there has been a Jewish presence there for many centuries. There have been more Jews than Arabs living there since the 1800s.

Israel has said many times that they are willing to trade land for peace - and they have done so - but that Jerusalem was not on the bargaining table and never would be. The Palestinian Arabs have no particular claim to it. They are just using it as an excuse to avoid stopping the armed conflict.

Obama needs to concentrate on getting Hamas to stop shooting missiles into civilian homes, agreeing to agree to Israel's right to exist and to make peace. He should avoid sticking his nose into issues like Arab demands for territory that they know is off limits.

(Posted before)

[Renbe]

Jerusalem is the capital city of Israel and there has been a Jewish presence there for many centuries. There have been more Jews than Arabs living there since the 1800s.

Israel has said many times that they are willing to trade land for peace - and they have done so - but that Jerusalem was not on the bargaining table and never would be. The Palestinian Arabs have no particular claim to it. They are just using it as an excuse to avoid stopping the armed conflict.

Obama needs to concentrate on getting Hamas to stop shooting missiles into civilian homes, agreeing to agree to Israel's right to exist and to make peace. He should avoid sticking his nose into issues like Arab demands for territory that they know is off limits.

(Posted before)

You can post your Zionist propoganda as often as you want. Fact remains that no country in the world recognizes Jeruzalem as the capital of Israel, and the virtually the whole world minus the USA demands that Israel abides by the relevant UN resolutions, stops the Israeli state terrorism against defenseless Palestinians, and stops committing war crimes and other atrocities.

[Ulysses G.]

You can post your Zionist propoganda as often as you want.

What is prop-o-ganda?

People who do not wear tin-foil hats to bed at night do not call it propaganda. They call it history.

In 1845, more than half a century before the first Zionist Congress set out the territorial aims of political Zionism, the Prussian consulate estimated that there were 7,120 Jews, 5,000 Muslims and 3,390 Christians in the city. From that moment, the Jews were to remain the largest single religious community.

Despite the Jewish majority, the British chose only Arab mayors after they conquered the city in 1917. The growing Jewish presence included the Jewish national and University Library, the Hadassah Hospital and the Hebrew University, where Winston Churchill planted a palm tree in 1921. Three Jewish garden cities were set up, pioneers of modern suburban planning. But three Arab uprisings within two decades led to the effective separation of Arab and Jewish neighbourhoods, including the creation of separate bus routes.

In 1937, when Britain raised the possibility of separate Jewish and Arab states in Palestine, the Jewish Agency proposed a partition of Jerusalem itself based on the two groups' main areas of urban settlement. The Arab states around Palestine refused to accept the idea of Jewish statehood and rejected this compromise. A violent decade followed, culminating in the battle for Jerusalem in 1948.

At that time 100,000 Jews and 65,000 Arabs inhabited the city. The Jewish Agency accepted a plan for a United Nations administration, calling it a "heavy sacrifice" that nevertheless would serve as "the Jewish contribution to the solution of a painful problem." The Arabs rejected this proposal too.

While Israel declared statehood, the Arab countries denied statehood to the Palestinian Arabs. Jordan annexed the land not occupied by Israel. And while Israel built Jerusalem up as a capital, with its parliament building, law courts and government ministries, the question never arose in 19 years of Jordanian rule of making East Jerusalem the Palestinian capital.

The population growth between 1949 and 1966 underlined this disparity of interest. While the Arab population increased to only 70,000, the Jewish population rose to 195,000. This number included many Jewish emigrants from Morocco, Iraq and other Arab lands where they had long been harassed and persecuted.

When on June 5, 1967, Jordanian troops joined in the Six Day War, the die was cast. The Israeli government had urged Jordan's King Hussein not to enter the war. His decision to do so was decisive for the future of Jerusalem and has determined its situation until today.

Within two days the Jordanian sector of the city was under Israeli control. The physical barriers were thrown down. "We earnestly stretch out our hands to our Arab brethren in peace," declared Moshe Dayan, the minister of defence, "but we have returned to Jerusalem never to part from her again."

East Jerusalem, one fifth of the built-up area of the city, was incorporated by Israel, and the city was given new municipal boundaries. By the end of 1993, the Jewish population had risen to more than 400,000, the Arab population to 155,000.

As a result of the policies of Teddy Kollek, mayor of Jerusalem from 1965 to 1993, facilities were provided for the Arab minority far beyond anything introduced under Jordanian rule, including a sewer and piped water system, clinics, libraries, parks and gardens. With reunification, Israel pledged to uphold freedom of access and worship, and this pledge has been kept. But while maintaining open access to the holy sites of Christianity and Islam, each Israeli government since 1967 has been committed to maintaining Jerusalem both as its capital and as an undivided city. http://christianacti.../whosecity.html