Israel Demolishes East Jerusalem Hotel and Peace Process
Clinton Slams 'Disturbing' Move
The Israeli government today moved forward with the demolition of a large part of an historic hotel in occupied East Jerusalem, which will eventually be the site of some 20 new settlement units. The move sparked international criticism.
The planned demolition of the Shepherd Hotel has been coming for quite some time. The Israeli government took it over in 1967 and it was sold to an American settlement enthusiast in 1985, who announced his intentions in 2007. International criticism had led Israeli officials to revise the plan from 133 to 20 units, and to insist that the hotel itself would remain untouched.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton condemned the move as a “disturbing development,” and added that it would do serious damage to the goal of a two-state solution. The peace process, as with the hotel, has fallen on hard times recently, however, and its destruction surprises few who were paying close attention.
Settlers praised the move as a chance to cement Jewish control over East Jerusalem in general, and the Arab neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah in particular.
The European Union, which also criticized the move, has also released a new report harshly condemning Israel’s Jerusalem policy, which maintains that even the occupied portions of the city seized militarily in 1967 are “eternally” part of Israel, and suggests that the EU treat East Jerusalem as the capital city of the would-be nation of Palestine.
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WarVeteran
January 10th, 2011 at 6:12 am
Israel will stop its warlike actions when the US stops its blind suport of Israel and those actions – BUT – never will happen as long as Zionists control America.
boutet
January 10th, 2011 at 6:46 am
Cut off all US monetary and weapons assistance and the Israelis would rebuild the hotel and invite Abbas to use the presidential suite at their expense. It's all about our money, the very best political lever America has and refuses to use.
boatops
January 10th, 2011 at 8:41 am
It's time for the WORLD to take back ALL of ISRAEL NOW. A piece of land was GIVEN to them and since then they have KILLED to take over more and more with the rest of the world turning a blind eye. It's time to correct this and force the destruction of Israel so the world can have PEACE!!!
guests
January 10th, 2011 at 9:59 am
Hillary Clinton can be critical as she wants so for rest of the world for Israel demolishing of this historic site, but the question is: Israel have done this kind of act many times before and many times the critic has been noted at UN assembly and other international communities yet Israel is still doing it, so what is left for the world to do is: To boycott Israel both in terms of social economic and a international politics, that is the only language that Israel will ever understand.., as said before.., otherwise talks and talks and talks again.., is time for action both from EU and US.