CHIEF PALESTINIAN negotiator Saeb Erekat has accused Israel of “bearing full responsibility for the collapse of direct peace negotiations” after the announcement that Israel plans to build 238 new homes in east Jerusalem.
With US officials desperately seeking a formula to get the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks back on track, Israel’s decision to press ahead with fresh construction in east Jerusalem is likely to create a further obstacle to breaking the impasse.
Mr Erekat called yesterday on the US and the European Union to step up pressure on Israel, which he accused of creating an atmosphere “not conducive to peace talks”.
Israeli officials said the announcement of 238 new housing units in the east Jerusalem neighbourhoods of Ramot and Pisgat Ze’ev was part of a much wider housing plan covering the whole of the country.
They said the numbers of new apartments planned for east Jerusalem was reduced following US criticism. According to the Israeli officials, the US protest was mild and Washington did not attempt to halt the new construction decision in a drastic manner.
This was the first tender issued for new Jewish homes in east Jerusalem since US vice-president Joe Biden’s visit to Israel in March, when it was announced that 1,600 housing units would be built despite the settlement freeze.
Egyptian foreign minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said that in response to the ongoing settlement construction, the Arab League would study other options, such as asking the United Nations to recognise a Palestinian state.
Israel annexed Arab east Jerusalem in the 1967 Six Day war and has declared the whole of the city its unified capital. Palestinians want east Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state.
Palestinian neighbourhoods of Jerusalem were not included when Israel declared a 10-month moratorium on West Bank settlement construction last November.
However, Israel promised Washington that there would be no “provocations” regarding east Jerusalem and no new plans for building that may torpedo the peace talks.
The latest announcement follows last month’s end of the 10-month building freeze, and the refusal by Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu to extend the moratorium – a move that prompted the Palestinians to suspend direct peace talks.