Ramallah- Palestinians will not begin indirect talks with Israel unless the Israeli government annul a decision to build 1600 houses in East Jerusalem, a senior Palestinian official said Thursday. "We want to hear from (US envoy George) Mitchell that Israel has canceled decision to build housing units before we start the negotiations," chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said.
His remarks follow on from comments by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who told visiting US Vice President Joe Biden Wednesday that it was not enough for the Israeli decision to be condemned, it also had to be canceled.
The Israelï announcement of the construction of the houses in East Jerusalem, announced Tuesday evening, came 24 hours after Mitchell announced that Israelis and Palestinians had agreed to begin indirect peace talks, after a 15-month hiatus in negotiations, and in the midst of a visit to the region by Biden.
The announcement severely embarrassed Biden, who issued his Israeli hosts with a sharp rebuke. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was not informed in advance of the decision, announced by the interior ministry.
The premier summoned Interior Minister Eli Yishai Wednesday morning and reprimanded him for the decision's "wretched, displaced, insensitive" timing.
The 1600 homes will be built in Ramat Shlomo, an ultra-Orthodox neighborhood in northern Jerusalem, near the Palestinian village of Shuafat.
The neighborhood is built on occupied land, beyond the "green line" that separates Israel and the West Bank. But it lies within the municipal boundaries drawn up by Israel after it annexed East Jerusalem following its capture in the 1967 Middle East War.
Israel regards all Jewish neighborhoods built beyond the green line, on occupied West Bank land, as an "integral" part of its self-declared capital.
Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/313520,palestinians-no-indirect-talks-until-jerusalem-housing-shelved.html.
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