Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu quietly asked the city government in Jerusalem and the country’s interior ministry earlier this month to halt all announcements centered around new settlement construction before and during President Barack Obama’s upcoming trip to the country, Eli Lake of The Daily Beast reported.
With Obama slated to arrive in Jerusalem on Wednesday, Netanyahu reportedly sought to avoid the awkward tension that surfaced during Vice President Joe Biden’s visit to the country three years ago, when an announcement by the interior ministry of the construction of 1,600 new homes in East Jerusalem earned swift condemnation from the Obama administration.
From the Daily Beast:
Israeli officials today say they are taking care to make sure such a debacle does not happen again. Jerusalem’s deputy mayor in charge of strategic planning, Naomi Tsur, told the Daily Beast in an interview: “It’s not a regular or frequent event when the president visits Jerusalem, we all have to do our best to create an ambience in which he can talk to both parties and perhaps convene them together.” While Tsur said there were desperate construction needs for the city’s Arab and Jewish residents, she also said she understood the request from the prime minister.
“I think it’s understandable,” she said. “In view of the mind set that has been established, that this is how things must be, then we must do whatever we can to help.”
Earlier this month planned announcements for construction of a wastewater facility in East Jerusalem and a new military college atop the Mount of Olives, which falls within the territory Israel won after the 1967 six-day war, were delayed, according to Israeli press reports.
“We have learned from past mistakes,” said Danny Ayalon, who stepped down last week as Israel’s deputy foreign minister. “Now the prime minister’s office will make sure nothing gets out of hand, the bureaucratic process in Israel is so intense and prolonged and complicated for any project you have to visit and revisit it from the different zoning committees six or seven times.” Ayalon said. “Now I am sure it will be absolutely clear and there will not be any mishandling or any mistakes.”
