According to Haaretz, Peres explains the international outcry over Israeli construction in Jerusalem as a reaction to Sheikh Jarrah and similar projects.
And he is correct. Even Arabs used to keep quiet about Israeli construction in predominantly Jewish districts of Jerusalem. But Israeli construction on Sheikh Jarrah provoked an outcry, and now foreign leaders oppose all the construction because they do not know whether a particular project is in a Jewish or Arab neighborhood.
The Sheikh Jarrah project is silly: a few apartment buildings won’t change the demography there and anchor the place for Israel. Netanyahu supported the construction only because it belongs to a high-profile investor.
