Israel announces plans for more West Bank housing

[Eugene]

Source: Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-jewish-settlement-west-bank-20130116,0,7597522.story

Israel announces plans for more West Bank housing

By Batsheva Sobelman
January 16, 2013, 7:27 a.m.

JERUSALEM -- Only a day after reports that President Obama had scathing words for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's settlement policy and six days before Israeli elections, more construction was announced Wednesday.

The Housing Ministry issued tenders for another 198 settlement apartments, 84 of them planned for the Jewish settlement of Kiryat Arba, one of the more sensitive locations in the West Bank.

Housing Minister Ariel Atias told Israeli media these were part of the thousands of apartments the government decided to market "after hearing Abu Mazen's speech at the United Nations" in November, a reference to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who at that time won support from the U.N. General Assembly for raising the Palestinians' status in the international body.

Atias dismissed criticism that the timing was related to the election campaign. "This has nothing to do with elections.... We are building to meet natural growth needs, not in defiance of the world," he said.

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Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-jewish-settlement-west-bank-20130116,0,7597522.story

[Jefferson23]

1. Nah, it's never in defiance of the world.

Thieves.

[oberliner]

2. Calling Jews living in and around Hebron "theives" is richly ironic

They should shut down the settlement, certainly, within the context of a peace agreement with the Palestinians, but using the term "thieves" is ridiculous on so many levels, considering the history of Hebron and its environs.

[Jefferson23]

3. Bullshit, and you know it. n/t

[Scootaloo]

4. You steal something, you are a thief.

Would you prefer "pirate," perhaps? They don't seem adverse to violence, after all.

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

5. If one takes something with no intent of giving it back,

but trying to incorporate it into another country, what does it make said person(s)?

[Bodhi BloodWave]

6. i guess we could compromise and settle for calling em conquerors nt