Israel will not yield on east Jerusalem

ISRAEL insisted yesterday it would continue construction in contested east Jerusalem, taking an uncompromising stance against US pressure following a tense visit by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Washington.

The refusal to change long-standing Israeli policy signalled that a high-profile rift between the two allies remained wide, with stalled Mideast peace talks caught in the middle.

“The prime minister’s position is that there is no change in Israeli policy on Jerusalem,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.

The Obama administration says Israeli building in east Jerusalem is provocative and undermines US efforts to relaunch Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. The Palestinians want that sector of the holy city for a future capital.

Netanyahu’s meetings with President Barack Obama and other top US officials did not appear to quell US anger over a major east Jerusalem construction project whose announcement in the middle of a visit by Vice President Joe Biden touched off the worst diplomatic row between the two countries in decades.

The disclosure on Wednesday that 20 new Jewish homes would be built in the heart of an Arab neighbourhood in east Jerusalem only stoked the frictions.

Israel annexed east Jerusalem immediately after capturing it from Jordan during the 1967 Mideast war and does not consider Jewish construction there to be settlement activity. The international community does not recognise the annexation and equates the Jewish construction there with West Bank settlements.

Should Netanyahu decide at any point to bend on east Jerusalem, he would likely do so at the expense of watching his hardline government splinter. He could, however, replace his hawkish coalition partners with the moderate Kadima Party, whose leader, Tzipi Livni, is open to sharing the holy city.

Israel’s unyielding stance earned Netanyahu a chilly reception this week at the White House. In what was widely regarded as a snub, the news media were not allowed into any part of the two meetings between Obama and Netanyahu. No joint news conference was held afterwards, no statements were issued about what happened, and the White House did not even release a photograph.