JERUSALEM:ISRAELI prime minister Ehud Olmert has said that Israel will not stop building on occupied land in and around Jerusalem, defying US criticism and sparking protests from Palestinians during renewed peace talks.
The United States has called Jewish settlement-building near Jerusalem unhelpful and said neither Israel nor the Palestinians were doing nearly enough to meet their obligations under a long-stalled road map peace plan.
"There will be places where there will be construction, or additions to construction, because these places will remain in Israel's hands," Mr Olmert yesterday told a news conference with German chancellor Angela Merkel.
"This includes, first and foremost, Jerusalem," he said. "We are building in Jerusalem because everyone knows that there is no chance the state of Israel will give up neighbourhoods like Har Homa, as you know. It's an inseparable part of Jerusalem."
Palestinians see the building in Har Homa as the last rampart in a wall of settlements encircling Arab East Jerusalem, cutting it off from the rest of the occupied West Bank.
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said Mr Olmert's comments "cannot stand" and that the Palestinians delivered that message directly to Israel's chief negotiator, foreign minister Tzipi Livni.
The road map calls on Israel to remove outposts built without government authorisation in the West Bank and to halt all settlement activity. It also demands that Palestine crack down on militants.
A Livni spokesman said she met her Palestinian counterpart, former prime minister Ahmed Qurie, for two hours but declined to comment on the discussions.
Washington has been especially critical of Israeli plans to build hundreds of new homes in Har Homa, which Palestinians refer to as Jabal Abu Ghneim. Israel has rejected criticism of building in the area on the grounds that it placed it inside the Jerusalem city boundaries it drew after occupying the West Bank in the 1967 Middle East war. That annexation is not recognised internationally.
In addition to Har Homa, Israel has approved plans to build within major Jewish settlement blocs like Givat Ze'ev, arguing that those areas would be part of the Jewish state under any future peace deal.
Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas had briefly suspended the US-backed talks earlier this month after an Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip killed more than 120 Palestinians. Israel said the offensive was meant to counter cross-border rocket fire by militants.
- (Reuters)