Israel rejects US demand to end settlement project
Israeli officials said the country’s ambassador to Washington, Michael Oren, was summoned to the State Department over the weekend and told that a project being developed by an American millionaire in the disputed section of the holy city should not go ahead. Settlements built on captured lands claimed by the Palestinians have emerged as a major sticking point in relations between Israel and the Obama administration because of their potential to disrupt Middle East peacemaking.
Although Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently yielded to heavy US pressure to endorse the establishment of a Palestinian state, he has resisted US demands for an immediate freeze on settlement expansion.
Yesterday, Netanyahu told his cabinet there would be no limits on Jewish construction anywhere in “unified Jerusalem”. “We cannot accept the fact that Jews wouldn’t be entitled to live and buy anywhere in Jerusalem,” he declared, calling Israeli sovereignty over the entire city “indisputable”.
The international community considers Jewish neighbourhoods in east Jerusalem to be settlements and an obstacle to Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking. Israel does not regard them as settlements because it annexed east Jerusalem in 1967 after capturing it in June of that year. East Jerusalem is an especially volatile issue because it is the site of key Jewish, Christian and Muslim holy sites. The Palestinians want the traditionally Arab sector of the city to be the capital of their future state.
“If the Israeli prime minister continues with settlement activities, he will undermine the efforts to revive the peace process,” Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said.
The approval, granted by the Jerusalem municipality earlier this month, allows for the construction of 20 apartments plus a three-level underground parking lot.
A spokesman for the US Embassy had no immediate comment.
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