Obama Presses Israel to Halt Jerusalem Plans Funded by Rennert, Moskowitz

By Jonathan Ferziger

July 27 (Bloomberg) -- Renco Group Inc. founder Ira Rennert and bingo entrepreneur Irving Moskowitz are among U.S. donors who have given $25.4 million in five years to build Jewish homes in Arab parts of Jerusalem -- the same areas where President Barack Obama is pressing Israel to stop such construction.

The American contributions, detailed in Internal Revenue Service records, have gone to organizations such as Ateret Cohanim. The group says it bought at least 45 properties, most in Jerusalem’s Muslim Quarter, to advance its goal of settling a Jewish majority in the now predominantly Arab Old City.

The donations have also helped fund plans to build Jewish homes on the Shepherd Hotel site in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood. The U.S. State Department two weeks ago asked Israel to halt the project, which has been condemned as a threat to Israeli-Palestinian peace prospects by the French government, the European Union and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

Plans to build homes for Jews in that part of the city are “the type of issue that should be subject to permanent-status negotiations” in the Middle East peace process, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters on July 20.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at a July 19 cabinet meeting in response to the U.S. criticism that Israel wouldn’t tolerate any restrictions on Jews buying property in the city. “Our sovereignty in Jerusalem is indisputable,” Netanyahu, 59, said, according to a government transcript.

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