ccun.org Editor's Note:

 East Jerusalem has been occupied by the Israeli occupation forces since 1967. Under the Geneva Convention, it is prohibited to change the status of the occupied territories by the occupying powers. The Israeli government is in violation to international law.

US State Dept. summons Israel envoy over East Jerusalem settlement

Published today (updated) 19/07/2009 14:21 Israeli cranes at work in Jerusalem [Ma'anImages] Bethlehem - Ma'an/Agencies -

The United States has demanded that Israel stop a new settlement underway in occupied East Jerusalem, according to several senior officials quoted in Israeli media on Sunday.

Israeli Ambassador to the US Michael Oren was summoned by the State Department this past weekend where he was urged to stop illegal building in the Palestinian occupied territory of the West Bank, a number of Israeli radio stations and the Hebrew-language daily newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported on Sunday morning.

The newspaper reported that it learned of the incident through officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss "diplomatic flaps with the US." The American Embassy in Tel Aviv had no immediate comment.

A top Israeli government source who rejected the American demands, according to the newspaper, said, "Israel is building in Jerusalem and will build in the future. The Israeli enforcement and planning bodies are in charge of this. This is private land. Up until now, there has been no criticism of Israel in Washington over construction in Jerusalem."

The particular settlement site reportedly at the center of the dispute is a hotel planned by American millionaire Irving Moskowitz and other "right-wingers," according to the paper, on the existing site of the historic pre-Israel Shepherd Hotel.

Further controversy over the new structure seemed unavoidable when reports surfaced that it would be constructed on top of the home of a former Islamic grand mufti, Mohammad Amin Al-Husseini, in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem, a flashpoint of controversy over a separate plan to demolish 88 Palestinian homes to build a Jewish-themed park called the City of David.

In a statement received by Ma'an, the Israeli Jerusalem municipality's planning committee said that the "acquisition of the land that includes the Shepherd Hotel was legal and received the necessary renovation and construction permits."

"Jews, Muslims, and Christians alike can purchase land in all parts of the city of Jerusalem," the municipality added, insisting that it "acts in full transparency and has presented the plans, including to the representatives of the British and US Consulates in Jerusalem."

Meanwhile, Israeli leaders responded in force to the Americans' demands.

"I read the newspaper headlines today about the construction of a neighborhood in Jerusalem," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at his government's weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday morning. "I would like to re-emphasize that the united Jerusalem is the capital of the Jewish people and of the State of Israel. Our sovereignty over it is cannot be challenged."

Seeming to imply that the settlement issue was about religion and not national rights, the prime minister went on to say that there was no ban on Palestinian citizens of Israel living in West Jerusalem and thus there should not be a ban on Jews living in East Jerusalem.

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman called the proposition that Israel submit to the demands unthinkable. "This is not an isolated distant Palestinian neighborhood. Should we of all people discriminate against Jews? This is unthinkable," he said. The foreign minister is himself a settler.

East Jerusalem is the capital of Palestine. In 1967 Israel seized the city, along with the West Bank and Gaza Strip, calling the action a "reunification of Jerusalem" from religious tradition and declaring the city its "undivided, eternal capital." Israel's claims on Jerusalem have never been accepted by the international community, and countries that maintain diplomatic ties with Israel generally open their embassies in Tel Aviv.

Illegal Jewish settlers to build new settlement called Obama Hilltop

[ 19/07/2009 - 08:23 AM ]

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)--

A group of illegal Jewish settlers are planning to rebuild a settlement in northern West Bank that was evacuated in 2005 and to name it after the new American president Barack Obama.

Settlers said that the new illgal settlement would be named Obama Hilltop to counter Obama's opposition to the expansion of settlements in the occupied Palestinian lands.

 The illegal Homesh settlement was evacuated at the orders of former Israeli premier Ariel Sharon in line with his unilateral withdrawal plan from the Gaza Strip and limited areas of the northern West Bank.

Leaders of those settlers have sent a message to Obama criticizing his pressure on Israel not to expand settlements.

Those settlers opened a website in which they ask visitors to donate 10 dollars to help rebuild Homesh.

Netanyahu defies U.S. on East Jerusalem settlement

Sun Jul 19, 2009 9:55am EDT

By Jeffery Heller

JERUSALEM (Reuters) -

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying he would not take orders over Israeli settlement in East Jerusalem, rejected on Sunday a U.S. demand to halt plans to build more homes for Jews in the disputed area.

New friction with Washington over the project to build 20 apartments in a part of Jerusalem captured by Israel in a 1967 war could deepen the most serious rift in relations between the two allies in a decade.

Israeli officials said the State Department had summoned Michael Oren, Israel's ambassador to Washington, and told him plans for the construction approved this month by Israel's Jerusalem municipality should be suspended.

"We cannot accept the idea that Jews will not have the right to live and buy (homes) anywhere in Jerusalem," Netanyahu said.

ABANDONED HOTEL

Israel annexed East Jerusalem and declared all of the city its capital after the 1967 war. Palestinians say Jewish settlement on occupied land could deny them a viable state.

The housing project is within a compound in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood where the now-defunct Shepherd Hotel stands. It was bought in 1985 by an American Jewish millionaire who has been funding Jewish housing projects in East Jerusalem.

Israel's Jerusalem municipality said its planning committee, acting in "full transparency," gave approval for the 20 apartments and pledged to preserve "the historic structure" at the site.

Palestinians have questioned the legality of the acquisition, saying the compound had belonged to the former grand mufti, the leading Muslim cleric in Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini. He went into exile in 1937 and died in 1974.

Israel designated the plot as "absentee property" after the 1967 war.

ccun.org Editor's Note:

 East Jerusalem has been occupied by the Israeli occupation forces since 1967. Under the Geneva Convention, it is prohibited to change the status of the occupied territories by the occupying powers. The Israeli government is in violation to international law.