Israeli municipal authorities moved ahead on Monday with a plan to raze 20 Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem, risking more US-Israeli friction over a building project seen by Palestinians as settlement expansion.
The Jerusalem city planning board ratified a proposal that could renew diplomatic pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a day after he bowed to world calls to ease a Gaza blockade following Israel’s deadly raid on an aid flotilla.
Israeli Minister of Defense Ehud Barak said the approval by the Jerusalem planning body lacked “common sense.”
PHOTO: REUTERS
Barak is in the US for talks with the US President Barack Obama administration. In a statement yesterday, he criticized the Jerusalem municipality for not exercising “common sense” and “a sense of timing.” The plan to make room for an Israeli tourist center could raise tensions in the divided city and deepen a conflict with the US.
The Obama administration has already condemned the plan.
Citing concern over Israel’s international image, Netanyahu had persuaded Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat to put the King’s Garden project on hold in March so authorities could consult with Palestinians who would lose their homes. The delay appeared designed to fend off US criticism at a time when Washington was struggling to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
US Department of State spokesman P.J. Crowley said the US was concerned about the project, though he said it was a preliminary step being taken by the Jerusalem municipality and not the Israeli government.
“We’ve had a number of conversations with the government of Israel about it,” Crowley told reporters in Washington.
“This would appear to be the kind of action that undermines trust and ... adds to the risk of violence, he said, adding that housing and other projects in “the occupied areas of Jerusalem” should be decided in talks between the two sides.
Jerusalem city spokesman Stephan Miller said the board gave zoning approval for building 1,000 homes across 22 hectares in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan.
The blueprint also calls for demolishing about 20 Palestinian homes built without permits.
Palestinians say building permits are impossible to obtain from Israel. The Obama administration has publicly appealed to Netanyahu not to demolish Palestinian homes.
Palestinian leaders have described the project as another attempt by Israel to cement its claim to all of Jerusalem, whose eastern sector it captured in a 1967 war.
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