Jerusalem – Israel Announces New East Jerusalem Housing Plans

Jerusalem – The Israeli government is moving ahead with plans to build nearly 1,300 new apartments in disputed east Jerusalem, an official said Monday, a step that could complicate Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s meetings with American officials in the United States.

Israel’s Interior Ministry said the decision to seek public comment on the building plans was merely a procedural step, and that actual construction was likely years away. Nonetheless, it cast a shadow over Netanyahu’s visit — in which he is speaking to American officials on how to revive peace talks that have stalled over Israeli settlement policies.

With the announcement, Israel risked setting off another run-in with Vice President Joe Biden, who met with Netanyahu in New Orleans on Sunday. Israel infuriated Biden early this year by announcing construction plans in east Jerusalem while the vice president was visiting. There was no immediate U.S. reaction to Monday’s announcement.

The U.S., along with the rest of the international community, opposes Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem — captured territories claimed by the Palestinians.

Washington is already frustrated over Netanyahu’s refusal to renew curbs on settlement construction in the West Bank that expired in September. The Palestinians say they will walk away from peace talks, relaunched just two months ago, if the building restrictions aren’t renewed.

Netanyahu’s talks with Biden, and later this week with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, are aimed at finding a compromise to restart peace talks.

News of the new building plans came from Israel’s Interior Ministry, which is controlled by the ultra-Orthodox religious party Shas, and it was not known whether Netanyahu was told about it ahead of time. His office had no immediate comment.

Interior Ministry official Efrat Orbach said the plans to build 978 apartments in the Har Homa neighborhood and 320 in the neighborhood of Ramot were approved six months ago but that for unspecified “technical reasons” the ministry only recently published the plans to give the public an opportunity to appeal.

She denied the timing of the move had anything to do with Netanyahu’s U.S. trip and said it would take years before actual construction would begin.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said regardless of when the building actually takes place, the latest Israeli move was a sign of bad faith.

He said the Palestinians had hoped Netanyahu had gone to the U.S. “to make a choice for peace and not settlements.”

“Unfortunately, once again, when given the choice, he chooses settlements,” Erekat said. “We hold him fully responsible for the collapse of these negotiations.”

The Palestinians hope to make east Jerusalem the capital of a future independent state that would also include the neighboring West Bank as well as the Gaza Strip.

Israel annexed east Jerusalem — home to sensitive Jewish, Muslim and Christian holy sites — after capturing it in the 1967 Mideast war and says the entire city is its eternal capital. The annexation is not internationally recognized.

Nearly 200,000 Israelis live in Jewish neighborhoods built throughout east Jerusalem to solidify Israel’s control of the area. The Palestinians and the international community consider these neighborhoods illegal settlements, along with dozens of Jewish settlements that dot the West Bank.

The Interior Ministry badly embarrassed Netanyahu in March by approving the construction of 1,600 apartments in another east Jerusalem neighborhood while Biden was in town. That decision caused a major rift with Washington and ultimately led Israel to suspend the project.

Netanyahu met with Biden in New Orleans on Sunday and is to meet with Clinton in New York on Thursday. President Barack Obama will be traveling in Asia during Netanyahu’s trip.

The original construction at Har Homa, during Netanyahu’s first tenure in the late 1990s, also caused a major conflict with the U.S., which opposed it. The neighborhood is the last Jewish enclave to have been built in east Jerusalem.