Israel greenlights plans for 1,000 Jerusalem settler homes
28 Oct 2014 5:35 AM IST
‘The government has decided to advance the planning of more than 1,000 units in Jerusalem -- roughly 400 in Har Homa and about 600 in Ramat Shlomo,’ the official in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office told AFP, referring to two existing east Jerusalem settlements.
He did not elaborate and declined to comment on the likely political and diplomatic impact of such a move at a time when Palestinians and the international community are already incensed at latest settler moves in the east Jerusalem neighbourhood of Silwan, where there have been almost nightly clashes for months.
Jibril Rajoub, a senior member of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas’s Fatah movement, warned of violent consequences likely to follow the latest settlement plans.
‘Such unilateral acts will lead to an explosion,’ he told a gathering of foreign journalists in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
‘If he wants to keep pushing us all into a vicious circle of bloodshed and killing he must draw the right conclusion from what happened in Gaza,’ Rajoub added, referring to the devastating 50-day war between Israel and Palestinian militants in and around the coastal strip in July and August.On Sunday, police in Jerusalem used tear gas against hundreds of Palestinians taking part in a ‘symbolic funeral’ there of 21-year-old Abdelrahman Shaludi, a Silwan resident who killed two people, including a baby, when he rammed his car into Jerusalem pedestrians last week.
One Palestinian was arrested at the mock funeral and another two were detained for allegedly throwing stones in Issawiya, another neighbourhood of mainly Arab east Jerusalem, police said.Police on Monday said they arrested eight more alleged rioters overnight.
Shaludi was shot dead by police as he tried to flee the scene of what they called the ‘terror attack’ last Wednesday.Clashes continued around east Jerusalem until his body was actually interred late Sunday night under draconian Israeli security restrictions, with the number of mourners restricted to 50.The Palestinian Red Crescent said that more than 20 Palestinians were injured during the night but did not give a breakdown.
He did not elaborate and declined to comment on the likely political and diplomatic impact of such a move at a time when Palestinians and the international community are already incensed at latest settler moves in the east Jerusalem neighbourhood of Silwan, where there have been almost nightly clashes for months.
Jibril Rajoub, a senior member of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas’s Fatah movement, warned of violent consequences likely to follow the latest settlement plans.
‘Such unilateral acts will lead to an explosion,’ he told a gathering of foreign journalists in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
‘If he wants to keep pushing us all into a vicious circle of bloodshed and killing he must draw the right conclusion from what happened in Gaza,’ Rajoub added, referring to the devastating 50-day war between Israel and Palestinian militants in and around the coastal strip in July and August.On Sunday, police in Jerusalem used tear gas against hundreds of Palestinians taking part in a ‘symbolic funeral’ there of 21-year-old Abdelrahman Shaludi, a Silwan resident who killed two people, including a baby, when he rammed his car into Jerusalem pedestrians last week.
One Palestinian was arrested at the mock funeral and another two were detained for allegedly throwing stones in Issawiya, another neighbourhood of mainly Arab east Jerusalem, police said.Police on Monday said they arrested eight more alleged rioters overnight.
Shaludi was shot dead by police as he tried to flee the scene of what they called the ‘terror attack’ last Wednesday.Clashes continued around east Jerusalem until his body was actually interred late Sunday night under draconian Israeli security restrictions, with the number of mourners restricted to 50.The Palestinian Red Crescent said that more than 20 Palestinians were injured during the night but did not give a breakdown.
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