MK Danny Danon at Ramat Shlomo
MK Danny Danon at Ramat ShlomoIsrael news photo

MK Danny Danon (Likud) visited the Jerusalem neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo Wednesday and toured the site where 1,600 housing units are to be built. The construction plans – long planned but newly announced – raised the ire of US Vice President Joe Biden, who is on a visit to Israel.

"Construction in Jerusalem is squarely at the heart of the Israeli consensus and is unshakeable,” Danon said. “Our right to build in Jerusalem, the eternal capital of the Jewish people, does not depend upon the time, or upon the events of a particular day.”

He stated: "I turn to [United States] President [Barack] Obama and to Vice President [Joe] Biden and say – hands off Jerusalem! Do not interfere in the matter of Jerusalem. The Jewish Nation has a right to this city. [Prime Minister Binyamin] Netanyahu said clearly that on the subject of Jerusalem there will be no compromises and no freezes. Your pressure is useless.”

"There is no proper timing for building in Jerusalem,” he added. “There is no right day or wrong day for building in Jerusalem. Just as construction is approved on a daily basis in Tel Aviv and Haifa, so are things in Jerusalem.”

The project that caused American ire, part of the hareidi-religious neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo, had been on the table for more than three years. It was submitted for public comment – a 60-day process – on Tuesday. The neighborhood is located between the densely populated Ramot and Sanhedria neighborhoods in northern Jerusalem, on a hilltop that was never inhabited by Arabs.