Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Monday that if reelected he will build thousands of settler homes in East Jerusalem to prevent future concessions to the Palestinians.
Speaking ahead of Tuesday's general election on a whistle-stop tour of Har Homa, a contentious settlement neighborhood of annexed East Jerusalem, Netanyahu vowed he would never allow the Palestinians to establish a capital in the city's eastern sector.
"I won't let that happen. My friends and I in Likud will preserve the unity of Jerusalem," he said of his ruling right-wing party, vowing to prevent any future division of the city by building thousands of new settler homes.
"We will continue to build in Jerusalem, we will add thousands of housing units, and in the face of all the (international) pressure, we will persist and continue to develop our eternal capital," he added.
Israel seized East Jerusalem in the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed it in a move never recognized by the international community.
Israel refers to both halves of the city as its "united, undivided capital" and does not see construction in the eastern sector as settlement building.
Successive Israeli leaders have vowed that Jerusalem will never again be divided -- in war or peace.
Speaking ahead of Tuesday's general election on a whistle-stop tour of Har Homa, a contentious settlement neighborhood of annexed East Jerusalem, Netanyahu vowed he would never allow the Palestinians to establish a capital in the city's eastern sector.
"I won't let that happen. My friends and I in Likud will preserve the unity of Jerusalem," he said of his ruling right-wing party, vowing to prevent any future division of the city by building thousands of new settler homes.
"We will continue to build in Jerusalem, we will add thousands of housing units, and in the face of all the (international) pressure, we will persist and continue to develop our eternal capital," he added.
Israel seized East Jerusalem in the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed it in a move never recognized by the international community.
Israel refers to both halves of the city as its "united, undivided capital" and does not see construction in the eastern sector as settlement building.
Successive Israeli leaders have vowed that Jerusalem will never again be divided -- in war or peace.
