Gibbs: Israeli housing plans dismaying, make US peace efforts more difficult

Gibbs: Israeli housing plans dismaying

WASHINGTON — White House spokesman Robert Gibbs is voicing dismay over the Jerusalem city government’s registration of plans for 900 additional housing units in a Jewish neighborhood in a part of city claimed by Palestinians.

Gibbs said in a statement Tuesday that the move makes “more difficult” the Obama administration’s attempts to bring Palestinians and Israelis back to peace negotiations and the establishment of a Palestinian state.

The spokesman said the U.S. also “objects to other Israeli practices in Jerusalem” including what it termed a “pattern of evictions and demolitions of Palestinian homes.”