White House Strongly Criticizes Israel For Building In East Jerusalem

The Daily mail reports that "Israeli plans to build nearly 700 new apartments in east Jerusalem sparked tough criticism from the United States this morning...Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced a slowdown in West Bank settlement construction several weeks ago in hopes of bringing the Palestinians back to the negotiating table. But the order did not include construction in east Jerusalem. 'We make a distinction between the West Bank and Jerusalem. Jerusalem is our capital and remains such,' said government spokesman Mark Regev. The Housing Ministry said it had approved a total of 692 new apartments in three existing Jewish neighborhoods already inhabited by tens of thousands of people."

"The United States opposes new Israeli construction in east Jerusalem," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said in a statement, calling the city a "permanent status issue" to be resolved through negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians.

"Neither party should engage in efforts or take actions that could unilaterally pre-empt, or appear to pre-empt, negotiations," he said. "Rather, both parties should return to negotiations without preconditions as soon as possible." Tweet