Europe and US condemn Israel settlement plans

EU foreign policy chief and US secretary of state attack plans to build illegal settlements in occupied East Jerusalem.

Last Modified: 28 Sep 2011 16:48

The European Union and the United States have condemned Israeli plans for the construction of 1,100 new housing units in occupied East Jerusalem as being counterproductive to negotiations on peace talks with the Palestinians.

They responded sharply to the Israeli interior ministry's announcement on Tuesday that it had approved plans for the new housing units in Gilo, an illegal settlement enclave in southeast Jerusalem.

The ministry said construction could begin after a mandatory 60-day period for public comment, a process that is largely a formality.

snip* They have demanded that Israel halt all settlement construction in East Jerusalem and the adjacent occupied West Bank - territories captured and illegally occupied by Israel since 1967 - as a condition for resuming peace talks.

in full: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/09/201192851113137636.html

The US will insist that the Palestinians must negotiate with the Israelis who are occupying their country and building settlements all over the place.

Imagine that. What if we were occupied by China and we appealed to the UN for state recognition. Then Europe said they will veto US statehood because the US must negotiate with the Chinese first. How would we feel?

And people wonder why the Muslim world hates us. It's not because our freedoms somehow pissed them off.

recognition, Israel should not be recognized as a nation either. The double standards are so great that it is hard for me to understand how politicians can keep a straight face when they talk about it.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday rejected Western and Arab complaints that the planned construction of 1,100 new homes in Gilo on annexed land close to Jerusalem would complicate Middle East peace efforts.

"Gilo is not a settlement nor an outpost. It is a neighborhood in the very heart of Jerusalem about five minutes from the center of town," Netanyahu's spokesman Mark Regev said.

In every peace plan on the table in the past 18 years Gilo "stays part of Jerusalem and therefore this planning decision in no way contradicts" the current Israel government's desire for peace based on two states for the two peoples, he added.

Netanyahu also stressed the construction approval announced on Tuesday was a "preliminary planning decision."

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/netanyahu-rejects-criticism-of-jerusalem-construction-beyond-green-line-1.387271

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It's good to see that Nutty believes in consistency and has a spokesman just as dishonest as he is. I found a map of how Israel has massively expanded the municipal boundaries into the West Bank far past the Green Line.

but will it stop Obama from using the veto?

The US will continue to insist, despite the blatant actions of the Israeli govt to show that they're not willing to make even the slightest good-faith gesture, that the Palestinians have to drop all their silly aspirations to becoming a member of the UN and MUST negotiate with the peace-living Nutty govt, which is 'stretching its hand out in peace' (I'm sure Nutty or Obama would have dropped that cliche into one of their recent speeches)...

The Arab League said Thursday that Israel's plan to build new homes in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo, which lies beyond the Green Line, was proof of its lack of desire for peace.

Secretary General Nabil al-Arabi described the construction as a "scandalous violation of international law."

He also criticized United States policy in the Middle East, saying that as a mediator between the Israelis and Palestinians it had failed to halt settlement activity.

The Jerusalem District Planning Committee announced Tuesday that it had approved the construction of 1,100 homes in Gilo, a neighborhood in southern Jerusalem built on land captured by Israel in the June 1967 war.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/arab-league-israeli-construction-in-jerusalem-is-violation-of-international-law-1.387349

face after all these years? I guess you don't, you just keep adding another layer.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Thursday sharply criticized Israel's plans to construct 1,100 new homes in the Gilo neighborhood of Jerusalem, calling those plans "a flagrant violation of international law", Army Radio reported.

Gilo is located on land annexed by Israel after it took control of East Jerusalem in the 1967 Six Day War.

"The plan raises doubt about Israel's sincerity and true intention to solve the conflict," Davutoglu said.

Davutoglu added that continued settlement construction proved that the Palestinian attempt to gain United Nations recognition of statehood was both justified and timely.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/turkey-joins-international-criticism-of-israeli-construction-in-jerusalem-1.387306