Israel's prime minister has rejected US pressure over the expansion of Jewish settlements. Speaking to a pro-Israel lobby group in Washington DC on Monday, Binyamin Netanyahu said "Jerusalem is not a settlement" and Israel has the right to build there. "Everyone knows, everyone - Americans, Europeans, Israelis certainly, Palestinians - everyone knows that these neighbourhoods will be part of Israel in any peace settlement. "Therefore, building them in no way precludes the possibility of the two-state solution," he said. On a visit by Joe Biden, the US vice-president, to the Middle East this month, Israel announced that it would build 1,600 new housing units in Ramat Shlomo, a religious Jewish settlement in an area of the West Bank annexed by Israel to Jerusalem.
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