AxisMundi Jerusalem

Settlement Freeze Still the Hot Topic

Months on, and the buck still stops with the settlements.

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is now in Europe to meet in London with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown today and US peace envoy George Mitchell on Wednesday. He will meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin on Thursday.

According to our latest article , the settlement freeze controversy  will dominate discussions, though Netanyahu is also keen to coordinate with Britain and Germany on opposition to Iran’s nuclear program.   (For more information on Netanyahu’s Europe trip, check out our factbox.)

In the midst of the debate, some organizations say that settlements continue to grow.

“On the eve of the visit,” says Reuters Allyn Fisher-Ilan, “Peace Now, an Israeli group opposed to Jewish settlements on Palestinian territory, said on Sunday that despite a government moratorium announced last week on approving new housing in the West Bank enclaves, more than 40,000 more homes could be built under plans already ratified.” Settler groups complain that families living there are being constrained by hindrances to building.

Even touchier than the settlement issue in the West Bank has been settlement building in East Jerusalem. An article in Ha’aretz says that Israel’s Jerusalem municipality is reviewing plans to construct 104 apartments there.

The report comes in the wake of rising tensions in East Jerusalem after the eviction of some Palestinian families from their houses. (See our report on that here, and a blog with video clips of protests against the evictions here.) Israel captured East Jerusalem along with the West Bank in the 1967 war. Palestinians want the capital of a future Palestinian state to be in Jerusalem.