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Jerusalem Mayor: “When We Build, We Are Building for Everyone”

February 14, 2013 10:30 am 3 comments

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Zach Pontz

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Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

The annual meetings of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations wrapped Thursday in Jerusalem with a tour led by the city’s mayor, Nir Barkat.

Responding to increasing international pressure to freeze construction in certain areas of the city, Barkat stressed during the tour that such moves would harm the interests of all residents of the city – including those living in the eastern portions of Jerusalem. “When we build, we are building for everyone, including infrastructural projects and school in East Jerusalem,” the mayor said while touring an overlook over the contested E1 zone.

Barkat also reiterated his position that the city should not be divided.”We need to look at the realities and recognized that no split city has ever worked – ideologically and practically Jerusalem cannot and will not be divided,” he was quoted as saying. The Mayor pointed to numerous ongoing initiatives to promote culture in the city and specifically to further encourage tourism which he anticipates will increase to 10 million people annually and add as many as 140,000 jobs in the coming years.

The delegation was led by Chairman of the Conference of Presidents, Richard Stone, its Executive Vice Chairman, Malcolm Hoenlein and Conference Past Chairman, Mort Zuckerman, who is chairing the 2013 delegation. The conference featured addresses from Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, President Shimon Peres and Jewish Agency chairman Natan Sharansky. Among the leaders addressing the group were Yair Lapid, Tzipi Livni, Naftali Bennett, US Ambassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro, Supreme Court President Asher Grunis, and other parliamentary, military and public figures.

3 Comments

Mark Rosen

February 15, 2013
11:38 am

I see you’ved archived my post, now can I, we all see it. Iv’e said nothing outside of your guidelines,, with all do respect.

Reply
H. Givon

February 15, 2013
9:17 am

Regarding the international demand that Israel freeze building in certain areas, one must refer to the legal and historical rights of the Mandate for Palestine(1922). It was passed unanimously by all fifty-one members of the League of Nations and is still legitimate and binding, recognizing that all of today’s territory of Palestine is to be the Jewish homeland. This is only 23% of the original San Remo document (1920) which also included the 77% east of the Jordan River, originally called ‘eastern Palestine’. Whereas Jews may not live in Jordan, Israel proudly has a multi-ethnic population which includes Arabs. Also of note is the fact that until 1948 and the rebirth of Israel, Jews were recognized worldwide as the ‘Palestinians’; today that identification has been adopted by the Arabs for political expediency in a misleading effort to claim all of the land with that name. That claim fails in light of history which records that the only nation ever to exist in the area was a Jewish one close to 4,000 years ago and that there remained a continuous recognized Jewish presence in the land even during foreign rule. By decree of the legal rights of Jews in Palestine, the issue of Israel being an ‘occupier’ is totally false, thus, it negates the demand that the country must refrain from building homes for her citizens. Israel, a beacon of light in a dark region, is a sovereign nation whose rights must be respected internationally.

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Mark Rosen, A Jew for Yeshua(Salvation)

February 15, 2013
9:14 am

However this turns out Jreusalem dose not belong to you people, so-called Jews(no pun), an elite group of investors who play with world spirituality and who have turned and profit from this tourist destination, nor to a Palestinian racist seperatist element that has no concept of what Islam means or teaches. Jews for Jesus(Yeshua)Salvation and the reallity that a human arbitrator(Yeshua)Salvation will decide the fate(function) of this already divided racist city. “Blessed are the Righteous For They Shall Inherit The Earth”, Do all these 3 Faiths, Islam, Christianity and Judaism have “The Righteous Amongst them”, show me ten good “Righteous”, and I will not,,,,,,,,,

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