Haaretz: The White House responded angrily Tuesday to Israel’s plan to build 900 new housing units beyond the Green Line in Jerusalem, despite specific objections from the U.S., saying that “we are dismayed.”
In a statement, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs voiced the U.S.’s disappointment with “the Jerusalem Planning Committee’s decision to move forward on the approval process for the expansion of Gilo in Jerusalem.”
The Jerusalem municipal planning committee approved the construction plan Tuesday despite an expose in Israel’s Yedioth Aharonot newspaper earlier in the day revealing that the U.S. has specifically objected to the construction outlined in the plan.
Maan: Israeli bulldozers demolished a four-story house in Jerusalem as reports in the Israeli media announced the approval of construction of 900 new settlement homes in the Israeli Gilo settlement on Tuesday.
Neighbors of Nasry Nassar Al-Husseini said his home, a four-story, multi-family structure in a neighborhood south of the Old City of Jerusalem, was destroyed by Israeli bulldozers as the family looked on. The structure was home to 30 Palestinians.
The demolition is part of what Palestinians call an ongoing campaign of Judaizing Jerusalem, including the eviction of Palestinians from their homes, the destruction of Palestinian homes and the continued construction of settlements.
JPost: Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is willing to show “restraint” in construction in the West Bank, but will not accept any restriction on building in Jerusalem, senior government sources said Tuesday night, following the Jerusalem Municipal Planning Committee’s approval of a plan to build some 900 units in the capital’s southeastern Gilo neighborhood.
Washington reportedly objected to the plan earlier this week, in a meeting between Mara Rudman, a top aide to US Middle East envoy George Mitchell, and Defense Ministry chief of staff Michael Herzog. The issue was also apparently raised again on Monday at a meeting between Mitchell and Netanyahu’s envoy Yitzhak Molcho.
