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.

In case you’ve missed it…

If you happened to miss Israeli Prime Minister Benajamin Netanyahu’s speech Sunday evening (June 14), or if you would just like to have another listen, we’ve uploaded it for you. The version below has simultaneous English translation.

Naturally, there was plenty of reaction from all quarters in the region. In the edit below, you can listen to comments from Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat (an advisor to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas); Judy Kramer, a resident of the Ofra settlement; Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri; and a number of residents of Gaza. Some of the soundbites are in Arabic. If you want to follow along with an English translation, click here.

This final edit includes more reaction from settlers and Palestinians (both in the West Bank and Gaza). Also included are some interesting comments from Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev who talks about Israeli government efforts to reach “understandings” about settlements with the Obama administration. Another comment comes from Arieh Eldad, a lawmaker from the right-wing Israeli National Unity Party, who says Netanyahu made a “very dangerous decision” in accepting the notion of a Palestinian state.

(Again, some of the Palestinian soundbites are in Arabic. You can follow along in English here.)

Obama-Netanyahu meeting – what the public saw…

One of the most closely watched meetings for decades between an Israeli Prime Minister and a US President took place yesterday when Messrs. Obama and Netanyahu sat together at the White House.

The two men met for two hours - during which time Obama pressed the ‘two state solution’ to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on a reluctant Netanyahu, while Netanyahu underlined his belief that Iran was a more pressing concern than Palestinian statehood.

White House watchers pointed out that 2 hours is a long meeting by Preisdential standards and also that the body language of the two men as they sat together suggested none of the fireworks that some had predicted went off in the private encounter.

Here’s a video report on the public comments made by the two leaders as they finished up their marathon chinwag.

Israel’s Haaretz newspaper has a full transcript of the Q&A here.