Netanyahu isn’t backing down from their plans to build many more homes in East Jerusalem as a result of the new UN status for the Palestinian Authority:
YAHOO NEWS – A government planning committee on Monday moved the project to the advanced stage of asking contractors to submit bids to build them, the Interior Ministry said Tuesday. Once a bid is awarded, construction can begin on the project in the Gilo area, though it can take months, if not longer, to reach that point.
An additional 300 units can be built after further planning, said attorney Daniel Seidemann, an expert on Jerusalem construction who sees the building as an obstacle to peacemaking. About 40,000 Israelis live in Gilo.
“With God’s help, we will continue to live and build in Jerusalem, which will remain united under Israeli sovereignty,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the campaign launch event of his Likud Party. “We will continue to strengthen the settlements.” Israeli elections are set for Jan. 22.
Mahmoud Abbas calls this a “red line” and vows a response through all possible means:
Nabil Abu Rdeneh, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said the new Israeli announcement was a “red line” that would block the chance for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, in which a Palestinian state would be established alongside Israel.
“The Palestinian Authority will take all the possible means available to respond to this,” said Abu Rdeneh. The statement was posted on the official Palestinian news agency Wafa.
Hamas is calling for a wave of suicide bombings in response the construction, prompting warnings of a possible Third Intifada being launched:
TIMES OF ISRAEL – Senior Hamas official Ahmed Abu Haliba, speaking to a Palestinian news source quoted by Israel’s Channel 10 news on Wednesday, said Israel’s announcements were the Jewish state’s attempt to “speed up the construction of the Temple” and that ”our people need… a new Islamic intifada to strike at the face of the enemy.”
Abu Haliba called on “all Palestinian factions” to resume suicide attacks “deep inside the Zionist enemy” and said that ”we must renew the resistance to occupation in any possible way, above all through armed resistance.”
Abu Halima also called for demonstrations in the West Bank in response to the renewed building.
On Tuesday, former prime minister Ehud Olmert warned that the Palestinians were “on the verge” of launching a third intifada due to their ”unbearable” situation.