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Israel plans new Jewish quarters in West Bank
JERUSALEM - An Israeli newspaper on Thursday disclosed plans to build three new Jewish neighbourhoods around Jerusalem in the occupied West Bank that foresees the construction of more than 20,000 housing units. The plan has been drawn up by a municipal committee and must still be approved by national authorities, the Haaretz daily said.

Deputy Mayor Yehoshua Pollak was quoted as saying it aimed to link Jerusalem with the Gush Etzion bloc of Jewish settlements to the south and other settlements to the north, around the West Bank political capital of Ramallah. In each of those cases, the plan is for 10,000 homes. An additional 500 homes would be built in the heart of occupied east Jerusalem, near the Palestinian area of Abu Dis.

Haaretz said the decision resulted from the fact that the national planning and construction committee had rejected a plan to expand Jerusalem westward. But city councilman Pepe Alalou, a member of the leftist opposition Meretz party, denounced the project, “whose sole purpose is to bring about a provocation that could jeopardise the relative calm in the city.”

Israel conquered east Jerusalem in the 1967 war and later annexed it. A dozen new neighbourhoods have been built there and house more than 200,000 Israelis. Another 245,000 Palestinians live in that part of the city.
Anybody think Israel is going to give up access to the Wailing Wall? Anybody think Israel will allow Jordan, or a Paleo state, or anyone to tell Jews they can't walk the streets of Jerusalem? The Israelis already made it clear, they annexed the eastern part of the city after the '67 war, and they're not giving it back.

Posted by: Steve White 2007-05-11
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=188049