THE MEETING later today in New York between US secretary of state Hillary Clinton and Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu has been overshadowed by this week’s Israeli announcement of plans to build more than 1,300 new homes for Jews in occupied east Jerusalem.
The focus of the meeting was to have found a formula to get the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks back on track. There was speculation that Mr Netanyahu might be willing to renew a West Bank settlement freeze in return for a package of US promises, including a veto of any move by the Palestinians to seek United Nations’ endorsement for an independent state.
But, once again, an ill-timed announcement by Israel of more settlement construction has created an additional obstacle, harming chances of ending the diplomatic deadlock. The decision to build 1,345 new units in the southern Jerusalem neighbourhood of Har Homa, facing Bethlehem , and in Ramot , in the north of the city, was condemned by international leaders including US president Barack Obama and European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.
Speaking last night, Mrs Clinton said Israel’s plan to go ahead with more settlements was counterproductive to peace negotiations. But, she said, a peace deal in the Middle East was still possible and necessary, and the United States was continuing to work to resume the talks.
Israel captured east Jerusalem from Jordan during the 1967 Arab-Israeli Six-Day War, and, unlike the rest of the West Bank, annexed the area shortly afterwards, declaring “unified Jerusalem the eternal capital of Israel”. The Palestinians seek east Jerusalem as the future capital of an independent state.
The fate of Jerusalem is one of the most contentious issues to be decided during peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians. The area was not included in Israel’s 10-month settlement freeze, which expired at the end of September.
Some 200,000 Jews now live in about a dozen new neighbourhoods built since 1967 in east Jerusalem. The Palestinians consider these new Jewish neighbourhoods of Jerusalem as settlements, but all Israeli governments have made a clear distinction between the new neighbourhoods within the municipal boundaries of Jerusalem and settlements built in the West Bank.
Speaking ahead of his meeting with Mrs Clinton, Mr Netanyahu tried to downplay the significance of the latest announcement, saying media reports were overblown. “You are talking about a handful of apartments that really don’t affect the [peace] map at all, contrary to impressions that might be perceived from certain news reports,” he said. “So it’s a minor issue that might be turned to a major issue. I think this is wrong.”
But Palestinian officials accused Israel of again putting settlements before peace. Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas called for a meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss Israel’s construction in east Jerusalem.
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat called on the international community to respond to Israel’s unilateral measures by instantly recognising a Palestinian state along the 1967 borders.