Against the background of the government’s decision to build in Ramat Shlomo and the E-1 zone, Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin sent a message to his acquaintances around the world saying that construction in Jerusalem is not subject to negotiations. “In any conceivable political arrangement, Israel will not cede control of E-1.”
In a greeting for the new year he sent out, Rivlin further wrote: “We refuse to accept that only a few weeks after missiles and rockets were fired from Gaza at Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, there are some who view Israel’s decision to hold on to a strategic area around Jerusalem and to build in its capital as the biggest obstacle to peace. We are getting the impression that European countries are more concerned with establishing a Palestinian state than they are with ensuring the existence of the Jewish state. The Europeans are wrong in assuming that Israel’s existence is assured and obvious.”