A DEFIANT Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, denied yesterday that he was delaying construction on a Jewish housing project in East Jerusalem, insisting that a hold-up was for "technical reasons" and that the bulldozers would be on the site within two weeks.
"We are going to build," Mr Netanyahu said. "If it weren't for the legal restrictions," he said, referring to a 15-day legally-required waiting period, "the bulldozers would have been on Har Homah yesterday and not in two weeks' time."
The Palestinians have strongly opposed the government's decision to build 6,500 housing units for Jews at Har Homah, a windswept hilltop in the part of Jerusalem conquered by Israel during the 1967 war, which they see as an effort to squash any claims they have on East Jerusalem as their future capital.
Speculation that Mr Netanyahu was holding up the project surfaced when he announced a delay in surveying work scheduled to begin on Har Homa yesterday.
Mr Netanyahu also denied the surveying work was being put off until after his meeting in Cairo today with President Mubarak of Egypt, who has voiced strong opposition to the project.
The Mayor of Jerusalem, Mr Ehud Olmert, a member of Mr Netanyahu's ruling Likud Party, said surveyors would be on the site by tomorrow.
Mr Netanyahu has also brushed aside mounting international pressure on Israel to reverse its decision. In his meeting on Monday with the Palestinian President, Mr Yasser Arafat, President Clinton condemned Israel's decision, saying it fostered "mistrust" between the two sides.
But an unbowed Mr Netanyahu said yesterday the US reaction was to be expected and reflected "nothing new".
Since 1967, he said, there had always been disagreement between Israel and the US over the issue of Jerusalem.
A group of 17 right-wing parliamentarians calling themselves "Force 17" who banded together to push Mr Netanyahu to build on Har Homah, announced yesterday they would absent themselves from votes in the Israeli parliament if the first pullback included areas of the West Bank that are under full Israeli control.
According to the agreement reached between Mr Netanyahu and Mr Arafat in January, Israel is to complete three pullbacks in the West Bank by late 1998.