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Construction near the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Jabel Mukaber (Jini)
Last update - 21:54 31/03/2008
Jerusalem council okays 600 new Jewish homes in Arab area
By Nadav Shragai, Haaretz Correspondent and Haaretz Service
Tags: Peace Now, Ehud Barak 

The municipality of Jerusalem on Monday approved the construction of 600 new homes in Pisgat Zeev, east of the Green Line.

Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolianski approved the expansion in Pisgat Zeev - a Jewish settlement surrounded by Arab towns in the West Bank - as part of a plan to construct 40,000 more homes in the area as foreign interest drives property prices up.

Also Monday, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert promised the spiritual leader of the Shas Party, Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef, that he would authorize construction on "Jerusalem envelope" lands which have been thus far frozen, sources from the ultra-Orthodox Party said.
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"The Prime Minister promised Rabbi [Yosef] unequivocally that the construction in all the Jerusalem envelope communities will not be hindered and will be unfrozen without delay," sources from the ultra-Orthodox Shas Party said.

The sources added that the rabbi had made clear to Olmert "with conviction" that the issue of construction in the ultra-Orthodox towns in Arab areas surrounding Jerusalem "are Shas' top priority," and that he will ask party chairman Eli Yishai to continue updating him on the matter.

During an earlier Kadima faction meeting at the Knesset on Monday, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert denied a report by the Peace Now movement claiming that Israeli construction in the West Bank had been stepped up.

"All the reports of dramatic construction projects in the [Palestinian] territories are not true, and it's not true that we're building in violation of commitments that were made," Olmert told a meeting of his Kadima Party.

Olmert also said Israel would continue to build in East Jerusalem and in
heavily Jewish areas of the West Bank that Israel wants to keep in a final peace agreement.

"This is going on within the framework of negotiations, and the negotiations will continue to progress," he said.

Meanwhile, the Yesha Council of Settlements said Monday it would continue to build in West Bank settlements, even without the necessary government authorizations.

"Whoever thinks that an administrative step can smother the settlement enterprise and prevent it from flourishing is mistaken," said a Yesha council statement. "Either the government will approve construction in the settlements, or the natural development of the settlements will continue to grow, even without government permits."

The statement came in response to a Peace Now report released Monday that noted expansion in 101 West Bank settlements, including at least 500 buildings, each containing dozens of apartments.

The report, which summarizes the first quarter of 2008, also found that Defense Minister Ehud Barak recently approved a plan to construct at least 969 housing units in settlements - 750 in the Agan Ayalon neighborhood of Givat Ze'ev and 48 in Ariel.

The report also notes that at least 184 new caravans have bee installed in West Bank settlements, at least 83 percent of them east of the separation fence.

Peace Now: Momentum for Jewish construction in E. J'lem 'unprecedented'

Peace Now accused the government of stepping up Jewish construction in East Jerusalem at an unprecedented rate, in a report released Monday.

"In the last two months, an unprecedented momentum has been noted in the Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem, with the intentions of expanding deep into Palestinian territories east of the Green Line," said the report.

According to the report, since the Annapolis Summit last November, tenders have been made for the construction of 750 housing units in East Jerusalem, compared to two tenders for 46 units in 2007.

The construction comes despite the recently revived peace process and Barak's pledge to ease conditions for Palestinians in the West Bank.

New home for ex-Gaza settlers: Deep in W.Bank

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert recently approved the construction of the 48 new apartments in Ariel, deep inside the northern West Bank.

Last week, Olmert told foreign correspondents that Israel is not building in the territories outside the settlement blocs. Ariel has been considered a settlement bloc by all Israeli governments, but the United States refuses to recognize it as such.

Because of Washington's objections, Ariel Mayor Ron Nahman used to complain that former defense minister Amir Peretz consistently refused all his requests for permission to build new housing in the city. But Peretz's successor in the ministry, Ehud Barak, ended the freeze.

Barak's office said in a statement that the new construction was meant to allow evacuated Gaza settlers, who had relocated to Ariel with the government's consent, to move from temporary to permanent housing.

Last week, Haaretz reported that Barak also approved bringing five trailer homes to the settlement of Tene Omarim to house evacuated Gaza settlers. That settlement is located east of the separation fence, meaning that Israel almost certainly does not intend to keep it under any future agreement.

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      1.   Peace Now should be renamed The Office Of Truth and Vice 10:20  |  Gili 31/03/08
      2.   until there is a final deal it all belongs to Israel 10:35  |  don 31/03/08
      3.   The severing of the West Bank 10:38  |  Clickfool 31/03/08
      4.   Best News in the world!! 10:38  |  Dr Eric 31/03/08
      5.   well....it is our capital!! 10:39  |  Jewish State 31/03/08
      6.   BUILD, BUILD BUILD! Let the leftists whine! 10:41  |  Shmuel 31/03/08
      7.   APPEASE NOW: Against the Jewish State! 10:44  |  Benny 31/03/08
      8.   The New Jerusalem 10:50  |  Motic 31/03/08
      9.   The gauntlet thrown down in the face of Annapolis 10:52  |  Ivar 31/03/08
      10.   Peace now = surrender now! 10:53  |  SLAVO 31/03/08
      11.   Ask yourself this, Shmuel # 6 11:05  |  Clickfool 31/03/08
      12.   Barak doesn`t think much of Pal peace efforts 11:07  |  Sam 31/03/08
      13.   keep building Israel. All of it, it`s yours!! 11:10  |  petra 31/03/08
      14.   Judea, Samaria, Jerusalem, all Israel for all times, build now 11:11  |  Johnny 31/03/08
      15.   Once again, Israeli politicians and anti-Semitic stereotypes..... 11:12  |  Swiss (Dino) 31/03/08
      16.   And they cry about the possibility of 1 state 11:24  |  Palestinian Prince 31/03/08
      17.   oh dear the left wing loonies are a tizz 11:28  |  v hardman 31/03/08
      18.   #15 the swiss roll baker doesnt know 11:31  |  v hardman 31/03/08
      19.   Swiss (Dino) very silly 11:39  |  ronnie 31/03/08
      20.   Clickfool - yes, nearly but not quite. Why is that? 11:41  |  Allon 31/03/08
      21.   #2 Don 11:56  |  Boycott 31/03/08
      22.   What a waste of resources 12:34  |  JES 31/03/08
      23.   Momentum for leftist construction 12:41  |  Benjamin B 31/03/08
      24.   Peace Now had it`s certificate withdrawn! 12:54  |  redmike 31/03/08
      25.   The arabs want jerusalem - Israel wants Saudia arabia 12:54  |  Dr Eric 31/03/08
      26.   Rice 12:54  |  fred 31/03/08
      27.   Palestinians and Jerusalem 12:57  |  Gilad 31/03/08
      28.   To swiss Dino - Israel is greedy??? 12:59  |  Dr eric 31/03/08
      29.   Peace Now - and WAR soon! 13:01  |  Dagma 31/03/08
      30.   Jerusalem is exclusively Jewish. 13:01  |  Jean Van Daem 31/03/08
      31.   There is only one answer to the relentless encroachment 13:07  |  Ben Alofs 31/03/08
      32.   What Israelis think of peace now!! 13:14  |  Dr Eric 31/03/08
      33.   #3 the little FOOL whose never been here 13:19  |  Ari ben Yisrael 31/03/08
      34.   Good, keep on building! 13:20  |  Wise Saba 31/03/08
      35.   Consider the source 13:22  |  American Christian 31/03/08
      36.   29 dr ben and the wrong argument as usual 13:25  |  v hardman 31/03/08
      37.   To Clickfool # 3 - Forget it!.... 13:26  |  Dagma 31/03/08
      38.   # 18 v hardman 13:40  |  Swiss (Dino) 31/03/08
      39.   To Ben Alofs 13:42  |  American Christian 31/03/08
      40.   # 19 ronnie 13:43  |  Swiss (Dino) 31/03/08
      41.   Peace, what peace 13:53  |  Frank 31/03/08
      42.   getting away with it 13:55  |  Michael 31/03/08
      43.   #5 "well....it is our capital!!" 13:58  |  Outsider 31/03/08
      44.   to Motic #8 - no evidence at all 14:00  |  zeev 31/03/08
      45.   Continued Settlement Building 14:04  |  PLT 31/03/08
      46.   Thank You Palestinians for helping build Israel!!! 14:06  |  Dr Eric 31/03/08
      47.   # 28 By the way Dr Eric, I don`t know whether you regard....... 14:07  |  Swiss (Dino) 31/03/08
      48.   like in the 30`s 14:08  |  pitcher 31/03/08
      49.   kolhakavod DR ERIC! boo SwissDino 14:10  |  Israeli 31/03/08
      50.   it is pretty obvious 14:11  |  RM 31/03/08
      51.   Yes Swiss DINO - ARABS SUPPORT YESHA!!! 14:14  |  dr eric 31/03/08
      52.   Yesha will no doubt cost Israel everything! 14:14  |  Deborah 31/03/08
      53.   Pal Prince-Most Jews don`t believe Pals want 2 state solution 14:16  |  Sam 31/03/08
      54.   Peace Now is notoriously unreliable when it comes to facts 14:25  |  x-ray 31/03/08
      55.   And with all this.... 14:28  |  Esther 31/03/08
      56.   Greedy Jews, peasantish Swiss, gnomish English 14:29  |  x-ray 31/03/08
      57.   building in Jewish state 14:29  |  Hilda 31/03/08
      58.   # 28 Dr Eric and also # 49 Israeli, since my first example..... 14:29  |  Swiss (Dino) 31/03/08
      59.   because Peace Now is a afraid of terrorists 14:30  |  Avi 31/03/08
      60.   to the fool in Sussex 14:33  |  Hilda 31/03/08
      61.   Are Arabs BULLIES...? 14:37  |  Dolly 31/03/08
      62.   hopeless PLT 14:37  |  Israeli 31/03/08
      63.   31 Ben Alof,I suggest suspension/expulsion from the UN as 14:41  |  lakshmi 31/03/08
      64.   WHO runs the country, SETTLERS? or Peoples GOVERNMENT? 14:46  |  Told U So 31/03/08
      65.   Swiss Dino - since i respect u, I don`t want to drop low! 14:51  |  dr eric 31/03/08
      66.   Blackmail and Legitimacy. 14:55  |  Jean Van Daem 31/03/08
      67.   #54 Swiss Dino 14:56  |  Israeli 31/03/08
      68.   #54 Swiss Dino 14:56  |  Israeli 31/03/08