Berlin – Germany on Thursday strongly criticized Israel’s plans to push ahead with the building of hundreds of new settlements in East Jerusalem, saying it would undermine efforts to peacefully resolve the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved the marketing of land for the construction of 454 homes in two East Jerusalem settlements on Tuesday, an official said, including in Ramat Shlomo, territory Palestinians want for a future state.
The United States has also harshly criticized the decision.
The Palestinian Authority condemns settlement building as a violation of international law aimed at preventing the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Some 500,000 Israelis have settled in the West Bank and East Jerusalem among 2.4 million Palestinians. The World Court says settlements built on land Israel occupied in a 1967 war are illegal. Israel disputes this.
In unusually strong language, Germany, which has forged especially close relations with Israel in the decades since the Holocaust, said Netanyahu’s plans ran counter to peace efforts.
“The plans of the Israeli government to press ahead with the building of settlements in Ramat Shlomo undermine efforts to achieve a peaceful solution of the Middle East conflict,” a foreign ministry spokeswoman said in an emailed statement.
“Against the backdrop of continued tensions between Israelis and Palestinians in Jerusalem and the West Bank, all steps that could lead to an escalation should be avoided,” she said.
The building of 436 of the housing units in the settlement of Ramat Shlomo was approved in 2012 but the project was frozen in an apparent attempt to avoid friction with Washington.
Netanyahu reaffirmed his commitment this month to a two-state solution. Palestinians have rejected his demand that they recognize Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people as a condition for the creation of a Palestinian state.
This is Germany’s pathetic way of appeasing the Muslims, hoping they won’t be attacked!
Germany – there will never be peace between the murderous Palis and Israel so we might as well keep building on OUR land! You just take care of your new Muslim population. They’ll be giving you plenty of trouble soon.
mind your own business – it is not the west bank or settlements – it is the land of Israel just like Germany is one whole country
yesh din veyesh dayin
hamavin yavnin
O and we should be listening to germany!!!
Right, the baby killer, grandma killer, german that has left an ugly scar on the face of the earth that will stay for eternity lecturing the Jews about where they can’t build in Israel. Let them join their nazi ancestors in hell.
Seventy years ago, Germany “resettled” 6 million Jews to die in the East (another name for Auschwitz and other death camps in Poland). Today, with Hashem’s great miracles, we survived and are living and thriving in the East. Germany, you have some chutzpa telling us where we should live after you failed your diabolical plan to murder us all!
Firstly, notice that the land is currently empty. We are not evicting anyone. If they want to build in their areas, they certainly can. Secondly, the first Rashi in Beraishis teaches us that H”KBH created the world and it’s his to parcel out. That proof is not for the nations, it’s for us to understand that it is our inheritance. And, all countries keep the land they win in a war! This was the result of the ’67 war. Hashem yishmor ahleynu.
So does Germany have a “FINAL SOLUTION” to this new “JEWISH PROBLEM”?
The only problem is that the palestinians don’t want peace, only a piece of israel as a start to conquering the whole land.