John Kerry Slams Settlement Building in Testimony to Congress

By Reuters February 24, 2016

Secretary of State John Kerry said on Wednesday that increased Israeli settlement building is not helping to ease tensions between Israelis and Palestinians.

“I don’t think that the situation is helped by additional settlement construction and building,” Kerry told a House of Representatives Appropriations subcommittee at a hearing on the State Department’s annual budget request.

“I think that I know we need to see measures taken on both sides to indicate a readiness and willingness to try to proceed forward and reduce the violence,” Kerry said, when asked about heightened violence.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism so that we can be prepared for whatever news 2025 brings.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO