Interior Minister: Israel will never freeze construction in Jerusalem
Yishai tells Shas daily that he has clarified this stance to the U.S., and plans to expedite construction in the capital.
By Haaretz Service Tags: Israel news Jerusalem U.S.
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Interior Minister Eli Yishai |
| Photo by: Hagai Ofen |
Interior Minister Eli Yishai declared Thursday that Israel had not agreed to freeze construction in East Jerusalem, adding that American demands to do so would never be met.
"There is not and never has been a freeze on construction in Jerusalem, nor will there ever be," said Yishai, whose approval of a 1,600 new housing units in East Jerusalem during U.S. Vice President Joe Biden's visit in March sparked tension in U.S.-Israeli ties.
Yishai, who heads the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, told his faction's newspaper that the issue would not be raised during upcoming visits by senior American officials.
The Interior Minister said that he intended to expedite procedures for planning and construction across Israel, but particularly in Jerusalem. Residents of the capital were suffering a serious housing crisis, Yishai told the newspaper, forcing many to leave the city.
"We will build everywhere in the capital of the Jewish nation's everlasting homeland, and I have clarified this to our American counterparts and friends," said Yishai.
He added that he had instructed the Jerusalem Building and Planning Council to convene after several delayed sessions to discuss renewing construction in the Arab area of Shoafat.
Yishai's comments came just a day after the U.S. State Department warned both Palestinians and Israelis to avoid taking inflammatory actions in Jerusalem.
"As we have said, if either side takes significant actions during the proximity talks that we judge would seriously undermine trust, we will respond to hold them accountable and ensure that negotiations continue," said a State Department representative.
The State Department further emphasized the U.S. stance on Jerusalem and expressed faith in the success of the indirect negotiations between the Palestinians and Israel.
"Our policy on Jerusalem remains unchanged. The status of Jerusalem is an issue that should be resolved in permanent status negotiations between the parties. This underlines the importance of making progress in the proximity talks to enable the parties to move to direct negotiations that will resolve this and other issues once and for all," said the U.S. official.
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Minister Yishi is 100% correct. Jerusalem is the eternal & undivided capital of Israel & can build when & where it wants. Jerusalem is not a "settlement". Why doesn't the USA return Texas ,California New Mexico,Nevada & Arizona to Mexico & Puerto Rico to Spain ??? Why Doesn't China get out of occupying Tibet. Israel left Gaza & look what it got them ( 7000 missles) . Holy Jerusalem will always remain under Israeli control open to all religions PERIOD.....
Israel had been settling in the Jersualem since 1967 and W-H-O CARES IF IT IS ILEGAL? Ilegality is accompanied with sanctions. If there are no sanctions , what is non-legal for a bunch of dictatorships in the United Nations is NON RELEVANT. The only thing that counts is American veto which is the most important part of law implementation. Will Obama decide to pull out American veto? Until that moment Israel will settle in Jerusalem the eternal capital of the jewish people. Johnboy thinks that moments is coming. Liberman rightly thinks that all the Johnboys around are just "dreaming". So do I. Obama does not need any more troubles in Congress.
jerusalem, especially east jerusalem, is the most important city for the jewish people. we have ther the kotel, hurva sinagogue .. we have there our history. muslims have mecca and medina. we only have jerusalem. but we must understand that there are people, the palestinians, who call Al-Quds their capital. many jews (as me) cant accept an east jerusalem under completely arab control (for obvious reasons, jordanian rule 1948-1967). what would happen with our holy sites there. but what would happen to muslim and christian holy sites if Israel continue to erradicate arab presence in jerusalem. I think that we must share the city and give west bank to the palestinian NOW... sorry for my english :-)
So if that is the case will the US finally stop financing Israel and its human rights violations? Let us see how long Israel will last without its ONLY friend
we have picked the wrong man at the wrong time. Just look 3 blocks away from downtown. They survive on dealing Afghan poppy cake, his generals flow in and on shorting our own economy to their ME friends with right hand on oil tap and left hand on Osama’s triggers. Look in the gulf of Mexico at his effective use of federal resources... Look in our airports at his strip search electronic devices. We are becoming a ghetto with no escape. And our own army and inner fefence organizations used not to defend our citizens, but to tighten the blockade. Support US troops, bring them home! We need them here, not somewhere else, today!
This government does not need peace... The peace does not bring money...
This obsession with Jerusalem borders on idolatry. It's a physical place with buildings, in the end.
To be quite honest after much study I had thought of taking 50 acres of land and making a fenced in area for nomadic bedoiuns to travel along. I read about the internal mind component of bedoin groups. If we put a 50 acre land area for nomadic movement it could also be a live museum to the world with privacy for family life. We could increase their lives to richness again. I believe in letting their heart song speak in legal behavior of truth but we cannot lock everyone into a four walled box. What of tent life. It is true they would have put Abraham and his group in boxed housing put him in a pysche ward because he talked to God without a church and maybe they would even have put Moses in the psyche ward for believing the words of commandments off rocks by Gods hand. We all cannot become a social work case because the machine of elite government has taken over. We need to believe our ancestors. Do we often stand in truth but then we cant allow some of the conditions either. What of a refuge status zone. All the land of Israel cannot be made in to a box with a toilet, sinks, shower, and bedrooms. Will it be here in 2000 years is my question or will we back to old Galilee. With advancement we have choices to make. In China in one zone there are huts with thatch roof with a big screen tv. They literally have floating boat they all live on with big screen tv and advance computer. There are Zulu tribesman ( National Geographic) rangling bulls and cows in tribal clothing with a cell phone and satellite phone to their ear. With a elite computer pulse gate to keep lions out and jeep hidden. We have choices of personal nature to make but we dont have to lose to poverty either. Sometimes giving someone what they want provides us to insight of others needs. People could flow in and out experiencing that way of life and they would just be living everyday life. What of tents again. The huge canvas tents. Just an idea. What about a settlement zone. In the USA they dealt with that as the Homesteading Acts of the 1800 hundreds. Let us think of this. Karoon
but in the end, they WILL leave it all behind.
livni was asking netanyahu to build a government with a rotating pm. he refused that time. now they have a rotating pm.....it can change every day......netanyahu....lieberman....yishai......netanyahu... whats the yishai -definition of "never" ? 3 years maximum?
Is a zionist strategy and what is it? Have as many spokesmen as you can all talking a different line, when it comes to understanding what Israel and the US meant. Keep them guessing. Does it mean EJ? Does it entail new or natural growth? Was it done with government permission? If it was not done with government permission and something is built, do you have to get a court order to reverse it? That throws the US off and they dont know to whom they should respond. Meanwhile the building and dispossession continues.
1) This is not so much a "government" as it is a flock of headless chickens, or 2) This is a deliberate tactic to so thoroughly confuse the Americans that they have no idea wether (or not) they have any "understandings" with this Likud-led govt. Either way, it does not reflect well on the Israeli govt, and especially not when they are looking more and more like an amateur hour compared to the tight-lipped Palestinian team.
You think Emmanuel does not know these cheep tricks? That Obama did not foresee this? Obama just saved Iron Dome. Sheer altruism out of concern for Israel's security ? Sure and nobody in Israel sees the trap. The interior minister is helping Obama to neutralize the Republicans and their AIPAC friends and when the time comes for Bibi to deliver he will wonder where all his once powerfull American friends are.
And I'll do it again. It's time all you anti-Israel types get it clear: Jerusalem is ours, and it's not up for discussion. PERIOD.
It doesn't make it true.
to their constituents in Israel and they can't easily reform their speech for the sake of peace, for the moment, at least. Such talk as DM Barak stated is just incitement or provocation to make all players feel unease before negotiations begin with the Palestinians. Thank goodness Netanyahu's Likud led coalition has a Minister who's an even keel politician.
with such a government and the way they run the country and their unclear stand and the outrageous treatment of the palestinian population, is there an anti-semitism or is there some form of racism against the palestinians?
Well Obama and company what have we to say about this one? Palestinians exercise restraint over this almost daily type of incitement? Enough nonsense. Abandon these less then useless proximity talks and move on to direct negotiations. East Jerusalem will surely top the list of major issues and for good reason. The time to clear the air has arrived. No movement means the talks are over. Then phase 3 to be followed by a settlement the terms of which all parties will be obliged to accept. Not the most desirable means to achieve an end but it appears fairly certain the only one that will work.
Israël foreign ministers are the measure of the despise of Israël for the other nations. Nobody can be surprised it goes to hugeproblems sixty years after creation.
Given that this statement, ie 'never freeze construction in Jerusalem' comes from an Israeli Minister, and assuming he has not been misquoted, or quoted out of context, we can presumably believe this is Israeli Government policy. So 30 years after the PLO declaration of Israel’s right to exist, where is the Palestinian ‘peace dividend’? …and given that Yasser Arafat has been buried for almost 6 years, does Israel still decry that it has no partner for peace? The Zionist’s ‘search for peace’ is such a damned lie, it is beyond belief.
Good ! That is exactly how it should be. It is OUR capital and the capital of Israel- always has been , should have been, and always will be. Let the Arabs have their Mecca and Medina but they can forget Jerusalem
And that is the way it is going to be.So I say: Build,build for it is the Capital of the ever lasting capital of Israel. The Muslims have Mecaa and Medina isn't that enough for the greedy Muslims? Enough is enough. As Petra says,and I agree wholeheartedly: BUILD,BABY BUILD. And hurrah for Yishai.
When Arabs forces had 100% of Jerusalem, there was no peace and still Arabs tried to destroy Israel. One easily gets the feeling that Jerusalem is just another excuse. Jerusalem belongs to Israel on the condition that all other faiths have full and unhindered access to what is sacred to them.
Since the Arabs want it all,doesn't that reflect their wanting not only Mecaa and Medina but the Jewish Jerusalem as well..Never stops wanting what is not theirs. Indeed since israel won the war and acquired the Holy David's City the visitors come freely to pray during their holydays without fearing being killed by terrorists.They all come,the Christians ,the Muslims(providing not the young ones who would upset the calm) So,the Holy City is protected by the IDF whereby there are no disturbances and the people are not afrraid . May Yishai continue to uphold his promise to keep the HOLY CITY SAFE from unwanted intruders. i.s The trouble makers. G*D be with Israel and may it be safe for ever,amen. Translation of Amen (means;so be it) p/s I translated it for someone who asked:Do you know what "Amen means" on another forum. Now he knows.
Sanctions, boycotts, and ostracism is the only answer to Israel by the whole world, as Israel continues to trample underfoot the only legitimate peace plan available, the 2002 Arab League Peace Initiative, aka Saudi Plan.
because he is a threat to national security by undermining US support. Shoudn't be that difficult to get one these days.
without having a Prime Minister. Is Liberman so bad that he must share his job withg Barak and Yishai or is it simply because Netanyahu lost control over his ministers?!
if we need a proof that the prime minister can't handle nor his ministers....
"the sedentary population of Jerusalem numbers about 15,500 souls, of whom 4,000 are Mussulmans and 8,000 Jews. The Mussulmans, forming about a fourth part of the whole, and consisting of Turks, Arabs and Moors"(Karl Marx) http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1854/03/28.htm Just for the record, 1854 was before Theodore Herzl, the father of modern Zionism wrote his manifesto. And what does that prove? It proves that Jews lived in Jerusalem long ago, in fact continuously for a very very long time and that Jews were in the majority even in 1854. The only time that Jews did not live in East Jerusalem was between 1948 and 1967, because in 1948 the Arabs ethnically cleansed East Jerusalem of Jews. But now, some of you guys and Obama want to forbid Jews from living and building in their ancestral city? Just because of those 19 years between 1948 and 1967 when Jews were barred? Isn't that just condoning Arab racism, ethnic hatred and racism?
"The only time that Jews did not live in East Jerusalem was between 1948 and 1967, because in 1948 the Arabs ethnically cleansed East Jerusalem of Jews." So do you think that justifies the deliberate policy of successive Israeli governments to increase the number of Jews and decrease the number of Arabs by using biased planning laws, biased residency laws, biased government funding, baised court judgements etc. etc.? The latest scam, of course, is allowing Jews to reclaim property in Jerusalem based on pre-1948 ownership, but not Arabs.
Stop obfuscating!!! All the broo haha is about why Israel has been allowing the building of homes for Jews in East Jerusalem during the proximity talks. I ask again: Why shouldn't they? Is it because of the mere 19 years between 1948 and 1967 when Arabs barred ALL Jews from East Jerusalem? Did that act of ethnic hatred render East Jerusalem an Arab city forever? Surely not and surely Jews should not have to stop building in a city in which they lived continuously for millenia?
And promptly moving in the rival group.
I have never denied that there was a continuing Jewish presence in Jerusalem during the Arab and Muslim period. Though obviously Jews were a small minority in the overall territory of Israel/Palestine during that period, so if you want to use that history to support Jewish Jersualem then you are also implicitly supporting an Arab Israel. Do you deny that Israeli governments have consistently attempted to reduce the number of Arabs and increase the number of Jews in Jerusalem, for the political and ethnic goal of making Jewish control of Jerusalem more secure. That sort of action would be completely unnaceptable in a modern Western democracy and basically is slow-motion ethnic cleansing.
At that time, Jerusalem consisted of the Old City, less than a square mile. The Jewish majority there lived in peace with their Arab neighbors for centuries because they did not seek to rule over them. Indeed, when the Zionists came from Europe, the Old Yishuv opposed them. Tim, you're absolutely right, we need to get back to the old Jerusalem.
TR: "I ask again: Why shouldn't they?" As far as everyone else is concerned those Jews are also "citizens of the occupying power", and Int'l law makes it illegal for an occupying power to colonize occupied territory. That's why Israel should stop this practice until such time as it can negotiate an agreement that changes this territory FROM "occupied" TO "Israeli" i.e. if Israel can do that then "great", and if it can't then "bad luck", but until it can swing that deal then what Israel is doing is i.l.l.e.g.a.l.
http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1854/03/28.htm "Nothing equals the misery and the sufferings of the Jews at Jerusalem, inhabiting the most filthy quarter of the town, called hareth-el-yahoud, the quarter of dirt, between the Zion and the Moriah, where their synagogues are situated – the constant objects of Mussulman oppression and intolerance" Does that sound like an equitable relationship between Jews and Muslims to you Benji? Do you hate Jews so much that you would wish that on them again?
http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1854/03/28.htm "Nothing equals the misery and the sufferings of the Jews at Jerusalem, inhabiting the most filthy quarter of the town, called hareth-el-yahoud, the quarter of dirt, between the Zion and the Moriah, where their synagogues are situated – the constant objects of Mussulman oppression and intolerance" Does that sound like an equitable relationship between Jews and Muslims to you Benji? Do you hate Jews so much that you would wish that on them again?
It is not illegal for Jews to live in their ancestral city. It is just illegal for Israelis to live in territory that is military occupied by Israel, like East Jerusalem.
Such a long peiriode of jews presence in jerusalem and being the largest communauty means at least that moslems were really tolerant and had respect toward them. And this was while power was in hands of moslems. Can the israelis show the same behaviour?
We will not clean Jerusalem as some of you Israel bashers claim, we will reconquest Jerusalem. It is different. By living here, everywhere. You like it or not, we don't care. Clear? Jerusalem has been made the capitol of Juda's tribe long ago Islam even exists. Read the Torah. It is our property certificate.
It is no surprise that Israel will refuse to abide by its previous commitments, Israel has never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity to make peace so such incitement was expected on the eve of peace talks. The only question is whether President Obama will turn a blind eye to this latest incitement by Israel or hold Israel accountable for its actions as he previously stated he would. My guess is that Obama will once again cower to Israel and destroy the peace talks before they even begin, but who knows, perhaps Cojones are on sale this week in D.C..
Now that this is settled , build baby build !
Finally, an answer that helps to clarify Israel's plan to build. Just what the Dr. ordered, homes for Jews in their own homeland.
What would the US need more than these racist and provocative statements to announce a boycott with officials in Bibi's government? The US must be committed to their vows and question the accountability of those officials who clearly and directly challenge the work and the international community. Its time for the US to show that its a truly neutral partner and the same way they vow their commitment to Israel, as a global power, they must make sure Palestinians right are preserved. The current Israeli government will never achieve peace. How could an extremist settler like Liberman or Yiashai stop settlements construction? We'll see what would be the next post by Haaretz about the US response!
Finally, Israel in a fast track to self destruction. Thanks to Bibi, Liberman and Yishai!!!!! Salam, Shaloom to all true peace lovers!!
I can see the glee in the eyes of the Palestinians and the Arab world, what a wonderful present Allah (in form of the Israeli voter) has offered them with the current Israeli "governement"......
"Residents of the capital were suffering a serious housing crisis, Yishai told the newspaper, forcing many to leave the city." Since many of his supporters would like to see the number of Arabs in Jersualem reduced and the numbers of Jews increase, I imagine when Yishai says this he's almost exclusively thinking of Jews. Successive Israeli governments have deliberately made it hard for Arabs to build new homes in Jerusalem, in order to try to push them out.
What to say! This shows great disrespect towards the US to try to help the process of peace in the region. Are the extremists living in a bubble? An Island? What is not understood from peace negotiations? I feel sorry for those israelis who are interested in peace. The government (national and local) is run by bigots.
They are religious zealots whose world view is uninfluenced by realities known to the rest of us. Israel is in big trouble and will remain in big trouble until the influence of such people is reduced to the proportion of the population they represent. Netanyahu's anti-democratic selection of a few fringe parties to make his coalition has empowered them beyond belief. Contrast this to Great Britain where the coalition is between the two parties that garnered the most votes.
Do we have a Prime Minister or do we have Prime Ministers? Who the hell is running this country (hopefully not into the toilet)???
compared to where this government is leading your country.
you made lough;;;;;;;;;;;;thank you
who is in charge here/ There are only two possible scenarios here. 1) The extremist minorities are completely out of control,in which case the tail is wagging the dog.Government please take control 2)The government uses the minorities to 'do its dirty work' Neither is in the long term interests of the country.Tie this to the proposed continuing demolitions of Arab homes with no permits(which they cannot obtain anyway), and we are showing that we have no integrity to offer the world.
Peace does not seem in the horizon... too bad
The Interior minister "clarifies" a position to the US. Since when does the Interior minister conduct foreign policy? Sadly, no one is preventing Shas and it's minister from making policy on its own. Get rid of this government!!
"Yishai tells Shas daily that he has clarified this stance to the U.S., and plans to expedite construction in the capital." ...obviousely day-light-robbery is not enough for this government... they also have to "justify" it by scandalous and dubious declarations...