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May 28, 2009

Israeli Figures Attribute Settlement Growth to Migration
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Israel says it needs to keep building to meet the housing needs of
growing settler families. But recent Israeli government statistics show
a large percentage of settlement growth was caused by settlers moving in
from outside the territories. Despite its call for a settlement freeze,
the Obama administration has still refused to demand Israel dismantle
any of the large settlements that carve up the West Bank and that the
World Court has deemed illegal. In Ramallah, independent Palestinian
lawmaker Mustafa Barghouti called on the US to exert meaningful pressure
on the Israeli government.

Mustafa Barghouti: “I believe that the Palestinian president should
demand American immediate, clear-cut pressure on Israel. Without
American pressure on Israel, there can be no progress for peace and
there can be great threat to the idea of peace based on two-state
solution.”



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