State Dept. Criticizes Expansion

By COLlive reporter

Jerusalem Council Member Yaakov Halperin didn’t seem concerned when he toured the growing Chabad centers in the Har Homa area in southern East Jerusalem this week.

To the contrary, Halperin said he was proud of the continued growth of the Jewish population in what is considered an illegal Israeli settlement by much of the world.

A Lubavitcher who represents the United Torah Judaism haredi party, Halperin visited the Chabad House led by Rabbi Schneur Zalman Cohen and the preschool and Chabad Shul led by Rabbi Menachem Turkov.

“Baruch Hashem, the building development despite the internal and external pressures proves that there is a strong policy of strengthening and holding onto the settlement in the Holy Land and expansion of Jerusalem,” he said.

His comments follow recent sharp criticism from the Obama administration over the Israeli government’s plans to build 770 new units in the Gilo area in Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria (West Bank).

Israel “is systematically undermining the prospects for a two-state solution” with the Palestinians, State Department spokesman John Kirby said in a statement Wednesday, according to the Washington Post.

“We strongly oppose settlement activity, which is corrosive to the cause of peace,” the statement said ahead of a meeting between Secretary of State John Kerry with Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority.

Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in response: “The suggestion that building in Gilo undermines the solution based on two states for two peoples is factually baseless and distracts from the real obstacle to peace — the persistent Palestinian refusal to recognize the Jewish state in any borders.”