East Jerusalem settlements of "particular concern" - UN Chief

United Nations, New York, 27 July 2009 - Noon briefing by the Office of the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General. The illegal building of new homes and communities continue to occur across the West Bank and East Jerusalem, threatening fragile hopes of a two-state solution to the long-running conflict, top United Nations officials warned today, urging both Israel and the Palestinians to meet their obligations under the Road Map for peace in the Middle East.

The situation in East Jerusalem is of particular concern especially indications of new settlement construction and house demolitions, Oscar Fernandez-Taranco, Assistant-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, said during an open Security Council debate on the Middle East.

Mr. Fernandez-Taranco said that the international community was troubled by the recent approval of 20 new housing units in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood in East Jerusalem, as well as the issuing of eviction and demolition orders against Palestinian homes.

News story:
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=31598&Cr=middle+east&Cr1...

View the entire Security Council meeting (Real media, 3 hours and 10 minutes):
http://webcast.un.org/ramgen/ondemand/sc/2009/sc090727am.rm

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• United Nations
• UN
• Oscar Fernandez-Taranco
• Middle East
• Jerusalem
• Palestine
• Israel
• Peace
• Security
• War
• Conflict
• Refugees

[AndreasWD]

I am not Palestinian, but my heart is with all of them , including those who have been massacred, humiliated, imprisoned and prevented from returning to their land. What israel is doing to the Palestinians is as cruel as the holocaust of Jews, blacks, etc ... where are the punishments for israel? Nothing!! So they feel entitled to decimate all Palestinians. This must stop now! Viva Palestina!!!

[panafilmxxx]

Arab countries, has not granted the refugees real civilian status but preferred to leave them permanently under the protection of UNRWA, as second-class residents on the outskirts of Damascus. And why do they preserve the refugee heritage? In order to use it as a weapon in the fight against Israel – the fight that has already made the Palestinian refugees miserable for tens of years – a fight in which the terror organizations are the sole winners.

[nappyweed111]

@warpedcomedy The Palestinians have lived in that land for over two thousand years. The romans originally came up with the name Palestine, which was indeed based on the name phillistines, they continued to live there under the rule of the ottomans and then the British. In 1922 for example, the palestinians outnumbered "israelis" by 10 to 1. It wasn't until the seizure of land by Israel in 1948 that jews en masse started to emigrate to the "holy land"

[warpedcomedy]

@perazh No, the name "Palestine" is BASED on the Philistines, and the Philistines did not occupy the land before, they were at war. The Philistines are long gone, and the Palestinians are Arabs descended from Eastern regions, and are not in any way related to this land, save through an Arab conquest which put them there.

[perazh]

No idiot based on Torah Palestinians (Philistinies) were there long before Abraham was born.

[batyam1987]

Only one group of people have continuously lived in Israel for the past 3,700 years - the Jews. Jerusalem, in particular, has had a Jewish majority since the 1840s, 40 years prior to the beginnings of Zionism. Seventy-five percent of the land in east Jerusalem, which the press calls "historically Arab east Jerusalem," has been owned by Jews since 1947.

[bullbunnies]

no its not the same

i'm not defending the evictions but if are concerned about an impending holocaust check out darfur