Israel gonna build homes on settlement

[ben-the-slacker]

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel has issued building tenders for more than 300 new apartments in two Jewish settlements in the West Bank, despite a construction freeze called for in the U.S.-backed peace "road map".

A Housing Ministry official said tenders had been issued for 143 new apartments in the Karnei Shomron settlement, near Nablus in the northern West Bank, and 180 in Givat Zeev, which is close to Jerusalem.

The independent Israeli settlement monitoring group Peace Now said the government had now published 1,627 tenders for new homes in the settlements since the beginning of the year.

The road map accepted by Israel and the Palestinians in efforts to end more than three years of violence bars "settlement activity" in Palestinian areas.

But a senior Israeli official said: "All legal tenders within existing communities are not included in the 'road map' according to our interpretation and our understanding."

Israel has about 150 settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, territories it occupied in the 1967 Middle East war. The international community regards settlements on occupied land as illegal under international law. Israel disputes this.

http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackage...1&section=news

[Mike]

I wouldn't want to be a Jewish "settler" living in one of those apartments.

[Bovon]

The Jews have been vilified down thru history...sometimes, I cannot help but think at least some of it may be brought on themselves. I do not fully understand the Jewish religion or beliefs, or even if that has any bearing on why the sect is mistreated(?) by others..but they have been 'crucified' everywhere they settle. There has to be a reason, and maybe its time for us to bail out of their conflicts.

[Theophylact]

This isn't a question of "the Jews". It's a question of the policy of the Israeli government. Putting Jewish settlements in the occupied territories began years ago when Sharon was Housing Minister in a Likud government, and it was done deliberately to make it hard to give back the territory.

Every sane person knows that any peaceful resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian mess has to begin with Israel removing all the settlements, and the Palestinian Authority renouncing a "right of return" to land within Israel. That's not to say these things would bring about peace, but they're absolute necessities. But no one in authority on either side has the political courage to admit the obvious.

[Theophylact]

By the way, referring to Jews as a "sect" is rather insulting, don't you think?

[J-Excel]

Every sane person knows that any peaceful resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian mess has to begin with Israel removing all the settlements, and the Palestinian Authority renouncing a "right of return" to land within Israel. That's not to say these things would bring about peace, but they're absolute necessities. But no one in authority on either side has the political courage to admit the obvious.

Dead nuts on!

The wall that is being constructed is not along the 1967 border, but is including the West Bank and Gaza, or parts of each anyway, on the Israel side of the fence, creating a defacto border, if I'm not mistaken. This is my only objection to the fence. It should be along the 1967 border. The border dispute has to be solved before any sort of peace can be reached.

[shahani]

Takes two hands to clap.