Israeli pledge to keep building in east Jerusalem first sign of trouble for new peace talks

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Israeli construction plans trouble new peace talks

JERUSALEM — Israel said Monday it has no intention of halting construction of Jewish housing in hotly contested east Jerusalem, a first sign of trouble for newly launched U.S.-mediated peace talks.

Palestinians accused Israel of undermining trust and urged President Barack Obama to intervene.

The comments on construction from Israeli Cabinet Secretary Tzvi Hauser came a day after the White House praised Israel for agreeing to hold off construction of a major east Jerusalem housing project. It also spotlighted the delicate balancing act of an Israeli government seeking to please both the Obama administration and hard-line coalition partners.

An Associated Press investigation in late April revealed that Israel had imposed a de facto freeze on new Jewish construction in the part of Jerusalem the Palestinians claim for a future capital, presumably to pave the way for the U.S.-mediated, indirect peace talks that began last week.

No new housing has been approved since an embarrassing diplomatic row broke out between Israel and the U.S. in March, when an Israeli panel announced 1,600 new houses for east Jerusalem in the middle of a visit by Vice President Joe Biden.

It was unclear if Hauser’s statement meant that freeze is about to end, and if so, what that would mean for the fledgling negotiations — the first after 17 months of deadlock in Mideast peacemaking.

“Building is expected to begin soon in Har Homa … and Neve Yaakov, where (construction) bids have been issued,” Hauser told Army Radio, referring to two east Jerusalem neighborhoods. “Building in Jerusalem is continuing according to its regular pace.”

Meanwhile, Palestinians on Monday condemned the start of construction of a 14-unit apartment building for Jews in the Ras al-Amud neighborhood of east Jerusalem, reported over the weekend by the anti-settlement watchdog group Peace Now. The project is being built by private settlers and did not require government approval.

Palestinians said the project violated the terms of the new peace talks, in which Israel has promised not to take any provocative actions. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he would raise his concerns with the Americans.

“The Americans said some words to us, and they said some words to the Israelis, and now it’s up to the U.S. administration to answer such things,” Abbas told reporters.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said the Israeli plans for east Jerusalem undermined trust-building as the U.S. tries to get the indirect negotiations, or proximity talks, moving.

“The whole concept of proximity talks is to give Senator George Mitchell and U.S. President Barack Obama the chance they deserve,” Erekat said. “If they begin doing this (building), I think they will take down the proximity talks.”

Mitchell, the U.S. Mideast envoy, left the region Sunday after completing the first round of talks.

The U.S. praised both sides on Sunday for taking small steps to create a positive atmosphere, including the Israeli pledge to hold up for two years the housing project that caused the rift with Washington.

Hauser said it would have taken a couple of years anyway before that project would begin, and in the meantime, construction in other east Jerusalem neighborhoods would proceed.

Palestinian officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were discussing private communications with the Americans, said U.S. officials had assured them that Israel would refrain from authorizing new housing in both Jewish and Arab neighborhoods of east Jerusalem, though projects already under way could be finished.

On the ground currently, construction is proceeding on hundreds of previously approved housing units for Jews in east Jerusalem.

Israeli Cabinet Minister Dan Meridor on Monday reiterated his government’s position that Jerusalem must remain the Jewish state’s undivided capital. He said Israel could not accept a “discriminatory” policy that barred Jews from living in certain parts of the city.

But in a sign of possible compromise, he said “the policy of the government will try to be wise.”

Sovereignty over Jerusalem is the most emotionally charged issue dividing Israel and the Palestinians. The city is home to a deeply contentious site that houses both the remnants of the biblical Jewish Temples and the Al-Aqsa Mosque, where Muslims believe the Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven.

Israel annexed east Jerusalem after capturing it from Jordan in the 1967 Middle East war, but no other country has recognized that.

Associated Press writer Amy Teibel contributed to this report.