But the seizure and closure of Orient House in East Jerusalem is of a different order.
Under the Israeli plans, the new homes will be built in Ramat Shlomo in East Jerusalem.
Similar rallies were held across the West Bank, East Jerusalem and even in the Gaza Strip.
Jews were unable to worship at their holy sites in East Jerusalem, which came under Jordanian control.
Obama has already been hurt by his obsessive focus on a settlements freeze in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
His posturing at a housing development in East Jerusalem led the prime minister of Israel to cancel a dinner for him.
Binyamin Netanyahu, on a visit to Washington, rejected Bill Clinton's plea to stop building a new Jewish settlement in East Jerusalem.
Two Palestinian employees of the UK consulate general in East Jerusalem have been arrested over an alleged weapons plot, Israeli officials say.
In a separate development, Israel decided to allow a top PLO official to hold a Christmas party Sunday in East Jerusalem, as planned.
Many years ago I was held overnight behind a door in East Jerusalem by young men who didn't want me to report a story.
Mr Netanyahu consistently rejected any freeze in East Jerusalem, which Israel unilaterally annexed in 1967, but agreed to reduce building elsewhere in the settlements.
On Thursday, Issawi was convicted of breaching his release conditions by travelling from his home in East Jerusalem to the West Bank, his lawyer said.
Britain and France have both summoned Israeli ambassadors in protest at Israel's decision to approve the construction of 3, 000 new homes in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
The most symbolic image is the tiny East Jerusalem Baptist Church.
The sole voice in favor of a cease-fire came from Mahmoud al-Mehdon(ph), a Palestinian from east Jerusalem who was looking at school bags with his wife.
Other questions focused on elected Police Commissioners, the deportation of four Palestinian Members of Parliament from East Jerusalem, and Christian communities and religious minorities in Iraq.
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Arab leaders have supported Mr Arafat's refusal to accept nothing less than full sovereignty of East Jerusalem, which the Palestinians want as the capital of their future state.
Mr Gingrich, by contrast, went out of his way to defend the East Jerusalem project, even though it is responsible for the recent stalling of the peace process.
The last round of direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians broke down in late 2010 following a dispute over settlement construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said he welcomed the decision and had urged the chief European Union election observer to make sure arrangements were in place for East Jerusalem residents.
As Christmas approaches, her 17-year-old son Sari checks daily for the arrival of his permit to travel 20 minutes' drive to East Jerusalem to see his sister on Christmas Eve.
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Mr Netanyahu's decision to create Har Homa on the outskirts of East Jerusalem is intolerable to the Palestinians because they see it as pre-empting future negotiations on the city's status.
Earlier in the week, Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz announced that Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem would be allowed to vote in January 25 parliamentary elections at one of five post offices.
But U.S. authorities did not confirm having said Israel would allow voting in east Jerusalem, which is populated mostly by Palestinians, and Israeli officials did not say whether it would be allowed.
He felt sure that Mahmoud Abbas, who presides over the Palestinian Authority that controls the West Bank, would strive for Palestinian sovereignty over East Jerusalem as vigorously as his predecessor, the late Yasser Arafat.
Arafat was angered by a deal between Israel and a group of renegade Jewish settlers who last week set up housekeeping in the predominately Arab Ras al-Amoud neighborhood of east Jerusalem in defiance of the Israeli government.
But Shas's spiritual leader, Ovadia Yosef, a 90-year-old rabbi, insists that America should agree in writing that the freeze would not apply to the large Jewish suburbs in East Jerusalem, whereas the Americans had left that vague.
Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister, who is campaigning for re-election on May 17th but not, according to the polls, doing well, ordered the closure of three offices in Orient House , the Palestinians' de facto headquarters in East Jerusalem.
It is in East Jerusalem's diplomatic quarter, beside the British consulate and offices of European governments accredited to the Palestinian Authority (PA), which is supposed to run the emerging Palestinian state, thus highlighting foreign impotence over the erosion of Palestinian areas.
The Vatican only recognised the Jewish state 46 years after its creation and, like the rest of the international community, it does not recognise Israeli sovereignty over east Jerusalem - which during the visit of Pope Paul VI was under Jordanian rule.
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