Tension between the Obama administration and the Israeli government appears to be growing after Israel rejected a US call to suspend construction on a planned housing complex in occupied East Jerusalem. On Thursday, the US State Department summoned Israel’s ambassador in Washington and told him that plans to build a twenty-unit apartment building project in East Jerusalem should not go ahead. But Israel has publicly rejected the request.

Israeli Vice Premier Silvan Shalom: “Jerusalem is the eternal capital of Israel, and we would continue to build in Jerusalem, like in every other city within the state of Israel. It’s the policy of all the Israeli governments since 1967, since Jerusalem was united, and I think that the demand not to build in Jerusalem is unacceptable.”