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Obama: Israeli-Palestinian Solution 'More Urgent than Ever'

   VOA News  April 05, 2011
   President Barack Obama (r) meets with Israeli President Shimon Peres at
   the White House, April 5, 2011

Photo: AP

   President Barack Obama (r) meets with Israeli President Shimon Peres at
   the White House, April 5, 2011

   U.S. President Barack Obama says that with change sweeping across the
   Middle East, it is "more urgent than ever" to find a peaceful solution
   to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.
   Mr. Obama spoke after talks with Israeli President Shimon Peres at the
   White House Tuesday.
   Mr. Peres said he and the U.S. president agreed that Israel and the
   Palestinians should renew direct negotiations immediately.
   Palestinians have refused to negotiate as long as Israel builds housing
   for Jews in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, territory the
   Palestinians claim for their future state.
   Israel says the Palestinians should not impose conditions for talks and
   notes that construction continued in those areas during previous rounds
   of negotiations.
   On Monday, Jerusalem city officials announced preliminary approval for
   nearly 1,000 new Jewish housing units in an eastern sector Israel
   annexed after the 1967 Middle East war.
   Mr. Obama, the Palestinians and most of the international community
   consider Israeli construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem to be
   illegal settlements.
   In violence Tuesday, Palestinian sources say Israeli fire killed a
   21-year-old man near the Gaza Strip's border with Israel.
   Palestinian witnesses say the man was collecting gravel along the
   border when he was shot. The Israeli military says the man was armed.

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References

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