{"id":4571,"date":"2012-12-31T03:21:57","date_gmt":"2012-12-31T09:21:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=4571"},"modified":"2012-12-31T03:21:57","modified_gmt":"2012-12-31T09:21:57","slug":"israeli-government-fires-back-at-british-criticism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/israeli-government-fires-back-at-british-criticism\/","title":{"rendered":"Israeli government fires back at British criticism"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>JERUSALEM (JTA) &#8212; The education minister of Israel responded to British condemnation of planned construction in eastern Jerusalem and accreditation of Ariel University Center. &#8220;Our connection to Ariel is at least as strong as the UK\u2019s connection to the Falkland Islands,&#8221; Gideon Saar said late Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;A university is an obstacle to peace? And as long as it was not a university there was a chance for peace? The incitement in the Palestinian educational system is the true obstacle to peace,&#8221; he said during a cultural event in Ness Ziona. &#8220;It is the unwillingness of the Palestinians to recognize Israel as a Jewish state and end their conflict with us that constitutes an obstacle to peace.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Saar noted that hundreds of Arab students study at Ariel and that the center has cooperated with academic institutions in England on important research projects.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>British Foreign Minister Alistair Burt said in a statement released on Dec. 27 that\u00a0 Israel&#8217;s upgrading of the Ariel center &#8220;will deepen the presence of the settlements in the Palestinian territories and will create another obstacle to peace.&#8221; He also said that Israel&#8217;s decision to build 1,200 homes in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo \u201cis damaging Israel\u2019s international reputation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Burt also invoked the Geneva Conventions in his criticism, and by\u00a0 juxtapositioning them implying that settlement expansion is considered a war crime under international law.<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"Email\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"Israeli%20government%20fires%20back%20at%20British%20criticism\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[1640,1641,1639,1513,8781,8790,8795,8788,1642],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4571"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4571"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4571\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4573,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4571\/revisions\/4573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}