Israeli planners have announced final approval permits for 558 new apartments in various settlements in occupied East Jerusalem. The plans had initially been approved years ago, according to officials, and this was just a formality.
The majority of the construction will take place in Har Homa, a settlement which was initially maintained as a forest under military occupation. In the late 1990s, the Israeli government removed the forest and created a settlement there.
US State Department officials were critical of the announcement, saying they oppose “unilateral actions” that aim to prejudge final status issues on East Jerusalem. Officials also downplayed the warnings of Israeli rabbis that Kerry faces divine retribution for the peace push, saying he is “not going to spend a lot of time worrying” about that.
PLO officials termed the move an attempt to “flagrantly” sabotage peace talks, while Israeli NGO Peace Now called it a “shameful” announcement. Israeli officials defended the move as part of “the master plan for Jew and Arabs as one.”
Yeah, we all know that every announcement to build settlements on stolen land is just a “FORMAlITY.”
The Israeli Govt. are feverishly dishing out settlement permits like candies from a sweet shop.
The developers and the crooked MKs will be laughing all the way to the banks having gotten their cut $$$ and the only losers will be the US taxpayers who will again be forced to pick up the compensation tab when the squatters have to vacate the settlement.
Here, here.
The Zionist keep crapping all over Kerry and Obama and by extension the American taxpayer efforts.
who are they building all this for
no one is moving there…
heck there are tens of thousnads of them working in the US and other countries
It seems to be just a figure in the eye of the US gov and the congress supports them
Way past time for America to cease all financial and military supprt of the Zionist regime in Israel – a country that has never been and is not now our 'ally' – remember the USS Liberty!
Not with the current Congress – overflowing with Israel-Firsters who would rather take care of the Israelis than the citizens they supposedly represent.
All the stuff about championing persecuted people of Israel is just a shameful cover story. Israel's just a US tool, like the mujahideen in Afghanistan, and Al Qaeda in Bosnia, Kosovo, Libya, and Syria right now.
The USA just cares about Israel because it's an illegal nuclear military aggression center-base for the USA's Middle East domination project. If Israel suddenly switched sides and started denouncing the US and opposing US bases and aggression in the region and talking up Iran, the USA would very quickly forget about championing the cause of the persecuted people, and would find new pretexts, this time for why Israel needs to be attacked for all the hundreds of UN resolutions it has violated – more than Iraq had.
The only "persecuted people" in Israel are those the Israelis persecute, the Palestinians and other Arabs (and Christians but no one here talks about them). If you aren't Jewish then you are a 2nd class citizen. And everyone already knows, the USG has already proven that they really doesn't give a fig for those people, really.
As for Israel being a US tool, the jury is still out as to who exactly is the tool in this relationship.