Mobile UPI  |   About UPI  |   UPI en Español  |   UPI Arabic  |   UPIU  |   My Account
Search:
Go

Netanyahu vows no new settlement

|
|
 
  
Published: May 24, 2009 at 5:29 PM

JERUSALEM, May 24 (UPI) -- Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Sunday that new settlements would not be built in the West Bank.

At a weekly Cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said there is no way to curb natural growth of existing settlements.

"We won't establish new settlements, but there is no logic in not providing an answer to natural growth," he was quoted by The Jerusalem Post as saying.

As for building in Jerusalem, Netanyahu said that will continue.

"It's not fair to issue a sweeping ban on settlement building, but we aspire to solve this issue through negotiations. Jerusalem, in any event, is not a settlement," he said.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak has already said that nearly two dozen illegal outposts in the West Bank will be dismantled by force, if necessary.

Even so, right-wing Israeli settlers say their efforts to build new outposts in occupied Arab territories will go on despite opposition from the government, Ynetnews.com reported.

"If the government continues to take aggressive, one-sided steps, it will also be responsible for the dire consequences," Danny Dayan, head of the Yesha Council, told the Web site, accusing the new government of going back on Netanyahu's campaign pledge to renew Jewish construction in the West Bank.

"We are very disappointed," added another prominent settler leader, Daniel Weiss. "We hope that Likud (members of the Knesset) and ministers will remind Netanyahu that a right-wing government has been elected and that its ideology should advocate a Greater Israel."

Topics: Ehud Barak
Recommended Stories
© 2009 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

Order reprints
  
Join the conversation
Most Popular Collections
The Tibetan Moniam Festival in China Super Bowl XLVI ticker tape victory parade The making of the Oscars
The Chicago Auto Show The Most Desirable Women of 2012 Tu Bishvat Migron settlement
Additional Top News Stories
1 of 25
Meryl Streep and Colin Firth attend the "BAFTA" ceremony in London
View Caption
fark
Not many companies can claim that their net domain address clearly explains what it is that the...
"Any self-important, self-propagating elitist, I will happily bare my buttocks to"
You don't have to be too smart to coach high school sports. Just smart enough to not post nude photos...
There's vandalizing your school, and then there's doing a million dollars damage to your school
Police say Taylor Burnham, 18, was only wearing cowboy boots as she led police on a Sunday morning...
If you're working as a dog groomer and accidentally chop off a dog's ear, don't try to glue it back,...