Free Republic

The UN Security Council resolution will not slow down construction in the 1967 liberated parts of Jerusalem, according to the municipality’s Local Planning and Construction committee. In fact, on Wednesday, the committee plans to vote to approve thousands of new housing units in Jewish and mixed neighborhoods across the 1949 armistice line, a.k.a. the “greenline.” The planning committee will approve 2,600 new housing units in the neighborhood of Gilo, another 2,600 units in Givat Hamatos, and 400 units in Ramat Shlomo – altogether 5,600 units in eastern Jerusalem.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – In a sign of improved stability in the West Bank, Israel is removing concrete blast walls put up eight years ago to shield a settlement on Jerusalem's outskirts from Palestinian gunfire and shells. Israeli army engineers on Sunday hoisted away sections of a 3-meter (10-foot) high concrete wall in Gilo, a settlement on the southern edge of Jerusalem targeted from the nearby West Bank town of Beit Jala during a Palestinian uprising. The uprising, or Intifada, erupted in 2000, after the collapse of peace talks and died out some five years later. "This is the first time...