Region | Palestinian Territories
Israel to build 1,300 homes for colonists
Israel on Friday confirmed plans to build 1,300 more apartments in occupied east Jerusalem, immediately drawing the ire of Palestinians who accused it of sabotaging already rocky peace efforts.
- AP
- Published: 00:01 June 14, 2008
Occupied Jerusalem: Israel on Friday confirmed plans to build 1,300 more apartments in occupied east Jerusalem, immediately drawing the ire of Palestinians who accused it of sabotaging already rocky peace efforts.
Interior Ministry spokeswoman Sabine Hadad said new apartments were approved for construction in the ultra-Orthodox Ramat Shlomo neighbourhood to help alleviate a housing shortage in occupied Jerusalem.
"We firmly condemn this project, which reveals the Israeli government's intention to destroy peace," Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat fumed.
Although it has committed under the 2003 "road map" peace plan to halt all settlement activity, Israel insists it has the right to build housing for Jews in occupied east Jerusalem because it annexed that sector of the city shortly after capturing it in the 1967 Middle East war. By contrast, it never annexed the adjoining West Bank, which the Palestinians also claim for their hoped-for state.
"Israel makes a clear distinction between [occupied] Jerusalem and the West Bank," government spokesman Mark Regev said. A total of 270,000 Jews live in the West Bank, and an additional 180,000 live in occupied east Jerusalem.
Ruining talks
Contentious Israeli construction has roiled the peace talks from the time they began late last year. Even before the first formal negotiating session began in December, Israel moved ahead with plans to build hundreds of new apartments elsewhere in occupied east Jerusalem.
In all, Israel has pressed forward with plans to build thousands of apartments in occupied east Jerusalem and the West Bank since Israeli-Palestinian peace talks resumed after a seven-year breakdown in November.
As the projects multiply, Palestinian officials have spoken out more and more sharply against the construction plans. Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, a leading voice of Palestinian moderation, recently accused Israel of "trampling" on peace.
And both the United States and UN chief Ban Ki-moon were sharply critical of Israel's announcement two weeks ago that it would build nearly 900 other apartments in occupied east Jerusalem.
At the US conference where the peace talks resumed, Israel and the Palestinians set a year-end goal of reaching a final peace accord. Officials from both sides have said that target is unrealistic, given the unresolved frictions between the two sides.
Major areas of contention have been Israeli construction in disputed areas and a network of hundreds of Israeli military roadblocks across the West Bank. Israel says the obstacles are vital to filtering out Palestinian attackers, but they severely hamper Palestinian movement and commerce.
Yesterday, the Israeli military said it removed 10 dirt roadblocks in the southern West Bank, bringing to 90 the number of unmanned barriers removed in recent months. The Palestinians say dirt roadblocks are insignificant and their removal has not improved their lives.
Further undermining the talks are the Hamas rule of the Gaza Strip and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's recent entanglement in a corruption probe.
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