Palestine, December 28: The Palestinian Authority on Monday condemned Israeli plans to build new homes for illegal Jewish settlers in Israeli-occupied Palestinian East Jerusalem and said they were incompatible with peace efforts.
All Israeli settlements are illegal under international law because they are built on occupied (mainly Palestinian) territories.
“The Palestinian Authority strongly condemns the new decision to build in East Jerusalem and wonders whether there is a freeze of settlement activity or an intensification of it,” chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said.
“The American administration needs to realise that the policies of the Israeli government embody settlements and not peace and that their choice is settlements and not peace,” he added.
Israel’s Channel 10 television reported Sunday that Israel has invited tenders for the building of some 692 new homes in three illegal settlements in East Jerusalem, which has been under illegal Israeli occupation since 1967.
The Israeli housing ministry sought bids for the construction of new homes in the settlements of Neve Yaacov, Pisgat Zeev and Har Homa, among a dozen that ring the city, the channel said.
There are already some 200,000 illegal Jewish settlers living alongside 270,000 Palestinians in East Jerusalem.
The Palestinians have refused to restart peace negotiations suspended a year ago during Israel’s war on Gaza unless Israel halts all illegal settlement activity in the occupied West Bank, including east Jerusalem.
Israel has agreed to a 10-month moratorium on building starts in the West Bank excluding public buildings and projects already underway. The partial freeze does not include east Jerusalem.
On November 16, Israel gave its approval for 900 new illegal housing units in another east Jerusalem settlement in a move that drew a strong rebuke from its US ally.
“We are dismayed at the Jerusalem planning committee’s decision to move forward on the approval process for the expansion of Gilo in Jerusalem,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said at the time.
“At a time when we are working to relaunch negotiations, these actions make it more difficult for our efforts to succeed.
—Agencies