By Meredith Lee-Clark

Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

 

EAST JERUSALEM, West Bank/Israel – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced a plan to build seven hundred new housing units in East Jerusalem and has invited construction contractors to bid on the project. The move has been widely condemned by the Palestinians and the broader international community, as East Jerusalem is predominantly Arab and is considered to be the capital of a future Palestinian state.

 

Several weeks ago, Mr. Netanyahu announced a ten-month freeze on Israeli settlements in the West Bank, as a gesture to show Israel’s good faith effort in negotiating with the Palestinians. The Israeli government did not include East Jerusalem in the settlement freeze, and has said it considers East Jerusalem to be part of a unified Jewish Jerusalem.

 

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat denounced the planned construction, and said that it was further evidence that the Israelis do not intend to negotiate with the Palestinians as equals.

 

“With each individual action it undertakes on the ground, Israel is saying no to meaningful negotiations, no to a just and lasting peace and no to the two-state solution,” said Mr. Erekat in a statement released after the Israeli announcement. “Every decision Israel takes to construct more illegal settlements makes a mockery of its so-called ‘settlement moratorium.’ If this is what Israel means by a settlement moratorium, then one can only wonder what Israel intends to do once that moratorium has ended.”

 

Mr. Netanyahu’s government has also drawn criticism from conservative Israelis for imposing the construction freeze in the West Bank. A week prior to the announcement of construction in East Jerusalem, a group of rabbis signed a letter saying that Israeli soldiers’ loyalty to religious institutions and communities that build settlements takes precedent over any duty to carrying out Israel’s diplomatic agenda, including enforcing the settlement freeze.

 

In addition to the planned construction in East Jerusalem, the Israeli State Prosecutor’s Office notified the High Court of Justice on December 27 that Israel was considering seizing private Palestinian land in the West Bank, despite the moratorium on such activity. Lawyers advocating for the Palestinian land owners, many of whom have lived on the land for generations, called the move “nothing short of an outrage.”

 

For more information, please see:

 

Al-Jazeera – Israel Plans Settlement Expansion – 28 December 2009

 

Ha’aretz – U.S.: Israel Plan to Build in East Jerusalem Harms Peace Process – 28 December 2009

 

Ma’an News Agency – White House Criticizes New Israeli Settlement Plan – 28 December 2009

 

Press TV – Israel Invites Tenders for Expanding Settlements – 28 December 2009

 

Christian Science Monitor – Israeli Settlements: Rabbis Say Soldiers’ Loyalty to God Trumps Army Orders – 18 December 2009