Construction of 2,612 homes in East Jerusalem approved amid international condemnation
Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to Asian ambassadors to Israel at
the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, on Wednesday, December 19 (photo
credit: Uri Lenz /Flash90)
Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu on Wednesday reiterated Israel’s right to build in the eastern
neighborhoods of Jerusalem, notwithstanding global outcries. Speaking
to ambassadors of Asian and Pacific countries on the balcony of
Jerusalem’s King David Hotel, overlooking the walls of the Old City,
Netanyahu asked them to look down at the city and contemplate
international demands that Israel stop building there.
“The walls of Jerusalem that you see behind us
represent the capital of the Jewish people for 3,000 years,” said
Netanyahu. “All Israeli governments have built in Jerusalem. We’re not
going to change that. That’s a natural thing.”
“I want you to ask any of you to imagine that
you would limit construction in your own capital. It doesn’t make sense…
we are committed to our capital; we’re committed to peace; and we’re
going to build in Jerusalem for all its residents. This is something
that has been done by all previous governments; this is something that
my government will continue to do,” Netanyahu told the envoys of China,
India, Japan, South Korea, Philippines, Australia, Myanmar, Thailand,
Nepal, Vietnam, and Sri Lanka.
Netanyahu’s statement came hours after the
Jerusalem District Planning and Building Committee approved the
construction of 2,612 housing units in Givat Hamatos, an area in East
Jerusalem between the neighborhoods of Gilo and Talpiot, beyond the
Green Line.
The area, inhabited by a few dozen Jewish and
Palestinian families who live in rundown trailers, would be the first
new neighborhood be built in East Jerusalem since 1997. City Councilor
Pepe Alalu, who voted against the project, said construction could begin
in a year.
Critics consider Givat Hamatos a particularly
problematic area to develop because, along with another contentious plan
in an area known as E-1, it would hinder access to East Jerusalem from
the West Bank. The Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as the capital of
their future state
The Givat Hamatos approval came a day after
the same committee authorized construction of 600 units in the Arab
neighborhood of Beit Safafa and two days after it approved the construction of 1,500 apartment units
in the largely ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo, effectively
unfreezing Jewish construction in the eastern part of the capital, a
move that garnered condemnation by the US.
The planning committee’s decisions to move
forward with East Jerusalem construction fly in the face of US pressure
on Israel not to develop Jerusalem neighborhoods beyond the Green Line.
The plan for expanding the Ramat Shlomo neighborhood touched off a
diplomatic crisis with the US in 2010 when the ministry gave it
preliminary approval during a visit by Vice President Joe Biden.
The State Department accused Israel on Tuesday
of engaging in a “pattern of provocative action” that runs contrary to
statements from Israeli leaders that they are committed to peace.
Spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said settlement activity puts the goal of
peace “further at risk.” She urged both Israel and the Palestinians to
halt all provocations and take steps to revive long-stalled peace talks.
“The Israeli settlement enterprise in the West
Bank and east Jerusalem is killing the two-state solution, and we are
taking the battle against this enterprise to the international
community,” Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riad Malki said
Wednesday.
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