[Jerusalem] Israeli leaders demanded on Sunday that the United States stop interfering with construction plans in East Jerusalem.
Jerusalem City Councillor Yakir Segev said the State Department was making “a grave mistake” in protesting a new residential project in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah.
“I think it will be right for the U.S. and the international community not to interfere with the micro-management of municipal affairs in Jerusalem,” Segev told The Media Line.
“It is not a matter for the international community. It’s a free country and a free market,” said Segev.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu led a chorus of angry comment after Israel’s ambassador in Washington was summoned to the U.S. State Department over plans to build 20 private homes on the site of the Shepherd’s Hotel.
But Palestinian officials welcomed the American intervention and condemned the new houses as “settlements” that undermined peace talks.
The former Shepherd’s Hotel is in an area of luxurious Arab villas which was captured by Israel along with East Jerusalem and the West Bank in the 1967 Six Day War. It was bought in the 1980s by American businessman Irving Moskowitz, who is a key figure behind efforts to purchase buildings in East Jerusalem to house Israelis. The area is now part of the Jerusalem Municipality, whose planning committee approved the construction of the housing project.
Ambassador Michael Oren was summoned to the State Department last Friday where US officials said the project should be halted in line with the U.S. demand for a freeze on all settlement building in the West Bank.
But Netanyahu said that Jerusalem was in a separate category.
http://www.themedialine.org/news/news_detail.asp?NewsID=2584
There is no doubt where America’s loyalties lay. America can now be counted amongst Israel’s enemies, at least according to the Word of God for trying to divide the land. God help us.
blessings, Hannah

























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