Ministers celebrate East Jerusalem settlement expansion

Mairav Zonszein By Mairav Zonszein May 26, 2011 | Edit

While Netanyahu was still reeling from his political victory following his US trip Wednesday, back at home, Interior Minister Eil Yishai and Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat and other government officials made good on Netanayhu’s promise to maintain the occupation in Jerusalem by staging a provocative ceremony to inaugurate 60 housing units already constructed in the Palestinian neighborhood of Ras el Amud in East Jerusalem.

This settlement, known as “Maale Zeitim” and owned by Florida tycoon Irving Moskowitz, was begun in the 1990’s under Ehud Olmert’s premiership and is an ugly barricaded building under constant 24-hour surveillance (funded by my tax shekels) just across the Mount of Olives cemetery – literally an island of Jews in the middle of a densely populated Palestinian neighborhood. It is adjacent to another settlement called Maale David, which, if connected and completed, will become together the largest settlement in East Jerusalem

The activists from Solidarity-Sheikh Jarrah protested the gratuitous ceremony:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVsgCX3BoNA[/youtube]

This Friday, the weekly protest in Sheikh Jarrah will be moved to Ras el Amud.

Mairav Zonszein

Mairav Zonszein is a journalist and editor who writes about Israel-Palestine and its role in U.S. politics. Her publications include The Guardian, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New York Review of Books, The Intercept, VICE News, Foreign Policy and many more.

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