News Brief

(IsraelNN.com) Shas chairman and Deputy Prime Minister Eli Yishai promised Wednesday that he will make sure that 100 housing units are built in memory of every yeshiva student murdered in Mercaz HaRav last Thursday. Yishai was touring Agan HaAyalot, where the hareidi-religious neighborhood New Givat Zeev Illit will be built, together with Shas ministers and Knesset members.

Yishai asked: "Did the Americans also demand of the Palestinians, who are building tens of thousands of housing units without permits, that they cease building?... I am sorry that there was a freeze on construction in the first place, the freeze was not justified. We cannot freeze building in Jerusalem, in the Jerusalem perimeter and in the settlement blocs. Thousands more units should be built in the region."

Yishai added: "We will continue to press for the un-freezing of additional land, in Givat Zeev, in Maaleh Adumim and in Jerusalem itself… The Americans want a building freeze, so we will make it clear to them that there is no freeze. This entire political debate is hypocritical."