Israel says it will continue building in east Jerusalem despite US pressure

Israel to continue building in east Jerusalem

JERUSALEM — Israel insisted Friday it would continue construction in contested east Jerusalem, taking an uncompromising stance against U.S. pressure following a tense visit by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Washington.

The refusal to change long-standing Israeli policy signaled 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. Shortly after, he convened a previously scheduled meeting of key ministers to frame a response to Washington’s demands for Israeli peace gestures.

The Obama administration says Israeli building in east Jerusalem is provocative and undermines U.S. efforts to relaunch Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. The Palestinians want that sector of the holy city for a future capital and view the expanding Jewish presence there as a challenge to their claim.

Netanyahu’s meetings with President Barack Obama and other top U.S. officials did not appear to quell U.S. 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 Wednesday that 20 new Jewish homes would be built in the heart of an Arab neighborhood 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 recognize 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 afterward, no statements were issued about what happened, and the White House did not even release a photograph.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton also rebuked the visiting Israeli leader, saying expansionist Israeli housing policies erode trust and compromise Washington’s position as an honest broker.

Netanyahu received a warm public reception from Congress, however, an indication that the administration might be limited in how much pressure it can apply. American Jewish backers of Israel are traditionally reliable supporters of the Democratic Party.

The fate of Jerusalem is the most explosive issue in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Israel captured east Jerusalem from Jordan in the 1967 Mideast war and immediately annexed the area — a move that has never been recognized internationally. The Palestinians want east Jerusalem as the capital of a state that includes the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Over the years, Israel has built a ring of Jewish neighborhoods in east Jerusalem to cement its control over the area. About 180,000 Israelis live in these neighborhoods and about 2,000 more live in Palestinian neighborhoods.

The latest plans for construction in east Jerusalem have thrown into question the fate of U.S.-mediated peace talks that the Palestinians and Israelis had agreed to just before the diplomatic feud erupted.