The US State Department on
Tuesday responded immediately to claims made in a statement by the Prime Minister's Office that east Jerusalem
construction had no bearing on the peace process.
“There clearly is a
link in the sense that it is incumbent upon both parties ... they are
responsible for creating conditions for a successful negotiation,” State
Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said.
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“To suggest that this kind of
announcement would not have an impact on the Palestinian side I think is
incorrect.”
The back-and-forth of statements between the Obama administration and the Prime Minister's Office was over Israeli plans
to advance 1,345 housing units in Jewish neighborhoods of east
Jerusalem.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu had flown to the US Saturday
night hoping to break the impasse in the stalled peace talks. Instead, US
President Barack Obama publicly reprimanded him as the Palestinians reissued
their threats to seek unilateral statehood.
“The international community
must respond to Israel’s unilateral measures by instantly recognizing a
Palestinian state along the 1967 borders,” said chief PLO negotiator Saeb
Erekat.
Speaking about the Jerusalem homes at a press conference in
Indonesia, Obama said, “This kind of activity is never helpful when it comes to
peace negotiations.”
He added that such “incremental steps can end up
breaking down trust between the parties.”
Netanyahu, in turn, sharply
defended Israel’s right to build in Jerusalem, which it claims as its eternal
united capital, even as the Palestinians claim the eastern party of the city as
the capital of their future state.
“Jerusalem is not a
settlement.
Jerusalem is the capital of Israel,” the Prime Minister’s
Office said in a statement on Tuesday, adding that the government had never
agreed to place any restrictions on construction in Jerusalem, which has 800,000
residents.
Although much of the international community equates
construction in east Jerusalem with that of West Bank settlements, Israel makes
a sharp distinction between the two.
From November of last year to
September, it halted new settlement construction in the West Bank, but during
that time it continued to issue new tenders for building in east
Jerusalem.
“Israel does not see any connection between the peace process
and the policy of planning and construction in Jerusalem, which has not changed
in 40 years,” the statement continued. “For the last 40 years every Israeli
government built in every part of the city. During that period, peace agreements
were signed with Egypt and Jordan, and for 17 years direct negotiations were
held with the Palestinians.
These are historical facts. Construction in
Jerusalem has never interfered with the peace process.”
The statement
went on to say that for the past 40 years, Israel and the US had disagreed over
the status of east Jerusalem, but that Israel hoped to overcome these
differences and stay focused on the peace process. It added that Netanyahu was
hopeful that his meeting Thursday with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
would advance the peace process.
The prime minister was not scheduled to
meet with Obama, who is still touring Asia.
Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat told
The Jerusalem Post that
nobody should be surprised because there is no freeze in the city.
“In
Jerusalem, we continue building for Jews and Arabs, as a derivative of our
outline plans,” Barkat said.
A number of Likud ministers immediately
applauded Netanyahu.
Education Minister Gideon Sa’ar said that the nation
stands behind him as he defends its right to build in Jerusalem.
Vice
Premier Silvan Shalom went further and announced plans to visit West Bank
settlements such as Ma’aleh Adumim and the Binyamin region.
At his press
conference in Indonesia, Obama said that in spite of the construction in east
Jerusalem, his country was committed to a two-state solution based on a
negotiated settlement.
“I’m concerned that we’re not seeing each side
make the extra effort involved to get a breakthrough that could finally create a
framework for a secure Israel living side and side – side by side in peace with
a sovereign Palestine,” said Obama.
“We’re going to keep on working on it
though, because it is in the world’s interest, it is in the interest of the
people of Israel, and it is in the interest of the Palestinian people to achieve
that settlement, to achieve that agreement.”
On Monday, Crowley said that
the US was mindful of the possibility that “somebody in Israel has made this
known in order to embarrass the prime minister and to undermine the
process.”
It’s not the first time that east Jerusalem construction has
moved forward precisely at a moment when the US and Israel were talking
face-toface about the peace process.
Plans for 1,600 new apartments in
the Ramat Shlomo neighborhood were advanced during a March visit to Israel by
Vice President Joe Biden.
In both cases the projects, which had been
initiated a number of years ago, moved one step forward in the planning process,
but are far from being finalized.
In New York, Netanyahu told Bloomberg
TV he hoped that negotiations with the Palestinians would resume and be finished
within a year, and attacked the Palestinians for making an issue of Israel’s
resumption of settlement construction in the West Bank.
“I think the
settlements are a minor issue,” he said. “And it’s been way overblown – not that
it’s not going to be discussed in these negotiations....
It’s just that
it hasn’t really blocked the flow of peace.”
He called on the
Palestinians to recognize the Jewish nature of the State of Israel, just as his
country was ready to recognize their state.
Jonah Mandel, Jordana Horn
and Khaled Abu Toameh contributed to this report.