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"Israel plans more East Jerusalem homes as talks collapse" by Rory McCarthy
From time to time, the
Palestine Center distributes
articles it believes will enhance understanding
of the Palestinian political
reality. The following article by Rory McCarthy
was published in
The
Guardian
on 7 March 2010. To view
this article online, please go to http://www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/2010/mar/07/palestinians-jerusalem-frozen-out.
"Israel plans more East Jerusalem homes
as talks collapse"
By Rory
McCarthy
Israeli authorities are
considering plans for at least another 8,000
homes in settlements in East Jerusalem, it
emerged today, despite the latest collapse in
proposed peace talks with the
Palestinians.
US vice-president Joe
Biden, who earlier condemned Israel for
approving plans to build hundreds of new
settler homes, took a more conciliatory tone in
a speech today, urging Israel and the
Palestinians to restart direct peace
negotiations.
"The only path though to
finally resolving the permanent status issues,
including borders, security, refugees and
Jerusalem, are direct talks," he said. He also
moderated his earlier criticism of Israel,
saying the US had "no better
friend".
Hagit Ofran, a settlement
expert at Israeli group Peace Now, compiled a
list of planned East Jerusalem settlements that
are at one of the several stages of approval.
She counted 8,253 proposed homes, including the
1,600 new homes announced on Tuesday for the
ultra-Orthodox settlement of Ramat
Shlomo.
After the latest approval this
week, Palestinian leaders promptly pulled out
of a new round of indirect "proximity" talks
with Israel that the US administration had
spent months setting up.
The 10 numbered
plans Ofran has identified, some of which are
years from construction, are in East Jerusalem
settlements including Givat Hamatos, Pisgat
Ze'ev, Neve Ya'acov, Gilo and Ramot. The
Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth published a
similar list of 19 plans, identifying 7,038
housing units awaiting approval.
Another
newspaper, Ha'aretz, said as many as 50,000
homes - nearly all in Jewish settlements - were
in various stages of planning and approval for
east Jerusalem, citing planning officials. The
paper said the city's construction plans for
the coming years focused on east Jerusalem
because a plan to expand west had been
cancelled three years ago.
Israel
regards East Jerusalem, which it captured in
the 1967 war, as sovereign territory and the
prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, has spoken
frequently in defence of Jewish settlement
there. But the international community does not
recognise Israeli sovereignty and settlements
on occupied land are illegal under
international law. Palestinian officials say
they will not return to direct peace talks
unless all settlement-building is stopped, a
demand also made last year by the US
administration. Netanyahu has ordered only a
temporary, partial curb on
construction.
Yesterday, Netanyahu gave
his interior minister, Eli Yishai, a dressing
down about the timing of the Ramat Shlomo
plans, which came as an embarrassment to Biden
during his visit. But there was no suggestion
the plans would be cancelled.
"Jerusalem
is the capital of Israel and construction there
will be carried out like in Tel Aviv or any
other city – in every part of Jerusalem
according to the plans," Israeli cabinet
secretary Zvi Hauser told Israel Radio.
"Jerusalem is a big city. It is a city that has
to grow"
Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian
president, told the head of the Arab League,
Amr Moussa, that the Palestinians would not
take part in the newly agreed indirect talks.
Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator,
said the Palestinians would not take part
unless the US forced Israel to cancel the Ramat
Shlomo construction – although that seems an
unlikely step. Palestinian officials said they
saw no reason to negotiate while settlements
continued to grow and no direct talks have been
held since Israel's war on Gaza more than a
year ago.
Hanan Ashrawi, a prominent
independent Palestinian politician, said:
"Israeli deliberate measures at expanding
settlement activities, at carrying out further
building of illegal settlements in and around
Jerusalem – all these are designed to scuttle
all American efforts at trying to relaunch any
kind of talks be they direct or indirect,
proximity or
long-distance."
The
views
expressed in this article are those of the
author and do not necessarily
reflect
those of The Jerusalem Fund.
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