OCCUPIED Jerusalem

5 Sep 2009
Gulf News

Israel to build more homes before colony freeze
US says it does not accept legitimacy of continued expansion and urges Tel Aviv to stop

Occupied Jerusalem (AFP) Israel will approve the construction of hundreds of new homes in West Bank colonies before weighing a freeze sought by Washington in a move announced yesterday that fuelled Palestinian outrage.

“The US does not accept the legitimacy of continued settlement [colony] expansion and we urge that it stop,” President Barack Obama’s press secretary, Robert Gibbs, said in reaction in a statement. “Continued settlement [colony] activity is inconsistent with Israel’s commitment” under the road map toward a Middle East peace. The US has pushed for a freeze of colony construction.

“In the next days the prime minister will approve construction starts and then he might consider a freeze for a limited time under certain conditions,” an Israeli government official said.

He confirmed a report in the Jerusalem Post that said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would consider a moratorium on colony construction “for a few months” after the green light is given to build new homes in the occupied West Bank.

“The only thing suspended by this announcement will be the peace process,” Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said.

Meanwhile, France’s Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner told Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Paris that if there is no colony freeze, a larger peace initiative “ will be much more difficult, or perhaps even impossible.”



(There is more but the above makes the point)




Gulf News – an Arab paper so one would expect a tag line – OCCUPIED Jerusalem … EXCEPT Arab news has the story, but the story originated with someone else. AFP.

Agence France Presse is NOT Arab, even if it is biased toward.

It says a lot, I think.









Israel