Jason Koutsoukis Herald Correspondent in Jerusalem June 30, 2009 A PROPOSAL by Israel's Defence Minister, Ehud Barak, to freeze Jewish settlement construction in the West Bank for six months was upstaged last night by the announcement that another 50 settlement units had just been approved. Mr Barak was en route to New York where he will present his plan for a "three to six month" construction freeze to the US envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, in an attempt to appease US demands that settlement construction be frozen altogether. The decision to build the 50 houses in the Adam settlement north of Jerusalem is part of a plan to relocate 200 settlers now living in a settlement outpost considered illegal under Israeli law. The 50 new houses are part of a larger plan to build 1450 new housing units in the Adam settlement.... [read full story]
