Rice: West Bank, East Jerusalem the Same
CBNNews.com
January 8, 2008
CBNNews.com - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she considers neighborhoods in east Jerusalem the same as Israeli "settlements" in the West Bank (Judea and Samaria).
In an interview with YNet news service and The Jerusalem Post before leaving for Israel, Rice told reporters that "the United States does not make a distinction" between activities in West Bank settlements and those in the eastern part of the nation's capital, which, she said, the U.S. considers "settlements."
"Har Homa [near Bethlehem] is a settlement the United States has opposed from the very beginning," Rice said.
Israel contends that Jerusalem neighborhoods, annexed after the 1967 Six Day War, are part of the nation's capital.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert may be on a collision course with the U.S. administration for his positions on Har Homa and Ma'aleh Adumim [east of Jerusalem].
"Ma'aleh Adumim is an indivisible part of Jerusalem and the State of Israel," the prime minister told the Post in a interview last week. "I don't think when people are talking about settlements, they're talking about Ma'aleh Adumim," he said.
Palestinian Authority (PA) Chief Negotiator Saeb Erekat responded by asking what planet the prime minister was living on.
Sources: The Jerusalem Post, YNet news service
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