News Brief

(IsraelNN.com) Nationalist legislators, led by National Union Knesset Member Uri Ariel, have charged Prime Minister Ehud Olmert with freezing all building in parts of Jerusalem that were restored to Israel in 1967. The Prime Minister previously denied that he halted new construction following American objections that the area has the same status as communities in Judea and Samaria.

"There has never before been a situation like this in the history of Jerusalem where an Israeli government actively freezes building," said MK Uri Ariel, speaking at a party caucus in the Har Homa neighborhood in eastern Jerusalem.

Har Homa administrator Herzl Yehezkel accused the government of disseminating disinformation and conflicting statements on the status of new housing for the neighborhood. Government officials have claimed that delays in issuing tenders for new construction were based on technical and not political reasons.