A U.S. State Department spokesman reiterated on Monday the Obama administration stance that Israel must cease all construction and development in the eastern section of the capital.
The new budget has earmarked more than NIS 200 million shekels to build new housing units and complete the infrastructure for the Har Homa neighborhood in Jerusalem, as well as in the city's suburb of Ma'ale Adumim. Current plans being debated in the Knesset call for the construction of 1,210 new apartments in Har Homa, which is located near the Palestinian Authority-controlled city of Bethlehem, home to the Tomb of the Matriarch Rachel.
Ma'aleh Adumim has seen burgeoning growth over the past decade, with at least 3,100 housing units already built and another 400 planned. More than NIS 150 million has been allocated in the current budget for infrastructure development in the sprawling suburb, which in January 2008 was home to 24,495 residents - triple the number of people who were expelled from Gaza and northern Samaria in the 2005 Disengagement.
The United States has been adamant that Israel must cease "all settlement activity" in Judea and Samaria, including "natural growth." Up to this point, however, Israeli officials did not believe the U.S. would apply the edict to the nation's capital, where the restored territory was annexed, rather than placed in a holding pattern after the 1967 Six Day War.
They were wrong.
Following is the transcript of the exchange between State Department spokesman Ian Kelly and a journalist at Monday's briefing on the subject.
The discussion centered specifically on neighborhoods in the capital on the "other" side of Jerusalem's so-called "Seam Line," where IDF soldiers recaptured the other half of the city from Jordanian forces during the 1967 Six Day War.
QUESTION: Okay, and then just to clarify ---
MR. KELLY: Yeah.
QUESTION: When you’re talking about no natural growth in settlements --
MR. KELLY: Yeah.
QUESTION: -- does that include any Jerusalem neighborhoods that are over the Green Line? (1949 Armistice line – ed.)
MR. KELLY: That – we call for a cease to all settlement activity.
QUESTION: Including Jerusalem --
QUESTION: (Inaudible.)
QUESTION: Including Jerusalem in that?
MR. KELLY: We’re talking about all settlement activity, yeah, in the area across the line.
QUESTION: Thank you.