Setting the record straight about the the Ramat Shlomo controversy, Israel’s ambassador to the UK Ron Prosor writes:
Let’s get the facts straight. Ramat Shlomo is not in “east” Jerusalem as often reported, but in the north of Jerusalem. It is not a new settlement, but an existing, established neighbourhood. The planning application has already taken years and will take at least another three for the first brick to be laid. Most cool-headed analysts agree that Jerusalem suburbs such as Ramat Shlomo will be considered part of Israel under any negotiated two-state solution.
He continues, focusing on an incident that received rather less coverage:
As the media spotlight last week glared on Jerusalem, Fatah officials renamed the main square in Ramallah after Dalal Mughrabi, the leader of a PLO terror attack in 1978 which killed 38 Israeli civilians, including 13 children. There was no coverage, let alone criticism, of this symbolic embrace of terrorist atrocity, despite its timing. There rarely is.
He also clarifies the record of the Netanyahu administration:
The media has long cast PM Netanyahu in the role of villain but he has refused to act the part. He embraced the two-state solution in his policy speech last June. He agreed to a West Bank settlement freeze of greater scope than any previous Israeli government. He has removed West Bank roadblocks and restrictions, easing access and helping to boost unprecedented growth in the Palestinian economy.
He also gently reminds us that there are other issues in the region:
Frustrated, critics have elevated Ramat Shlomo to a position of disproportionate prominence. It is, apparently, more important than Iran’s imperial nuclear ambitions, the Taliban’s tightening grip on Pakistan’s border and the evolution of Iraqi democracy.
Well said, Mr Prosor. I can’t remember the last time I read such a brilliant deconstruction of the misconceptions and lies of Israel’s critics. Read – and circulate – it all.
(Update: Mr Prosor’s article was published on the Telegraph website on Thursday. Yet today (Sunday) a new report on the same website is referring to “the East Jerusalem settlement of Ramat Shlomo”.)
completely agree: it was an excellent article.
In the Times, whilst they were referring to it as East Jerusalem they provided a map locating the area that clearly showed it was not East at all. It’s more North-West than East.
Anything about Israel is disproportionate to certain nutters in this world!
And why is everything Israel does disproportionate? Because in their anti-Jewish (oops, I mean anti-Zionist) eyes, Israel should not do anything, it should not exist – and therefore any effort it makes – no matter how slight – to render the land livable, or imply that it is a legitimate country – is an overbearing punch in the sensibilities of the haters.
Sells more papers if they say “East” Jerusalem! Disgusting.
I am about ready to throw my radio out the window as I hear the repeated misreps of the situation. Shockingly, a pro-Zionist fellow Jew sent me a lousy screech by Thomas Friedmann about the right the US has to demand that Israel back down on this project, completely ignoring all the articles I had sent him previously explaining that Rabat Shlomo is not in EJ at all and is on land that was held by Jews at least since the 19th century and that this project has been on the books for years.
It’s like what Goebels observed, if a lie is big enough and repeated often enough, it becomes the truth.
It is up to us who know what the truth is to insist on setting the record straight, however futile it seems.
Chas, thanks for doing your part.