News report: Netanyahu OK’d bids for 426 new units during Biden’s visit

Settlements - Indirect talks

News report: Netanyahu OK’d bids for 426 new units during Biden’s visit

[ 18/03/2010 - 11:08 AM ]

NAZARETH, (PIC)-- Israel’s TV channel ten on Wednesday evening revealed that premier Benjamin Netanyahu had concealed the announcement of tenders for the construction of new 426 settlement units in occupied Jerusalem from US vice president Joe Biden during his last visit.

It said that before Biden left for Jordan, Netanyahu endorsed two tenders for these units, including 309 housing units in the settlement of Neve Yaakov in Jerusalem, adding that the deadline for submitting the bids was last Wednesday, the day Biden ended his visit.

The channel quoted the director of Peace Now organization as saying that the projects would hinder the separation of West Jerusalem from its eastern part and the Palestinian lands east of the green line in any future political settlement between Palestinians and Israelis.

In a related context, Khalil Tafakji, who works at the Mapping and GIS Department of the Arab Studies Society in Jerusaleman, unveiled that there are Israeli plans to establish 50,000 new housing units all over Jerusalem by the end of 2020, adding that the Israeli occupation authority (IOA) also intends to bring 200,000 Jewish immigrants to live in these units.

In a statement to the Palestinian information center (PIC) on Wednesday, Tafakji said that the IOA aims to impose a fait accompli in the holy city through announcing every once in a while the establishment of new housing units in its settlements.

The expert pointed out that Israel considers its settlement expansion in Jerusalem a central issue not subject to any kind of negotiation and this is what was declared many times before by Israeli officials especially Netanyahu.

He warned that Israel wants to deliver a message to the Arabs that the city of Jerusalem is nonnegotiable and it is its eternal capital.

For his part, former minister of Jerusalem affairs Khaled Abu Arafa told the PIC on Wednesday that the continued Israeli attacks against Jerusalem and its people constituted a kind of advanced pressure on Arabs and Muslims, asserting that the regional states’ preoccupation with artificial internal issues made them ignore what is happening in the holy city.

Abu Arafa said that the countries in the region are not attentive currently to the Palestinian cause in general and the issue of Jerusalem in particular because they are busy with made-up domestic issues.

He noted that the steadfastness of Jerusalemite people and their defense of the Islamic holy sites and their rights are the only option in light of the current circumstances.

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