Israel greenlights 1,600 new houses in Jerusalem

JERUSALEM, March 9 (Xinhua) -- The Israeli Interior Ministry on Tuesday said that it has approved the construction of 1,600 new housing units in a Jewish neighborhood in a disputed section of Jerusalem.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) greets visiting U.S. Vice President Joe Biden before their meeting at Netanyahu's residence in Jerusalem, March 9, 2010. (Xinhua/GPO)

A spokeswoman of the ministry's Jerusalem district planning committee told Xinhua that the new project is to expand Ramat Shlomo, an ultra-Orthodox community located in the northern part of Jerusalem. She refused to specify whether the project is in East Jerusalem, yet the neighborhood does sit in the section of the holy city the Palestinians claim to be the capital of their future state, widely referred to as East Jerusalem.

Following the approval, the project is now in the process of public comment, which means the public has 60 days to file objections to the plan, reported local news service Ynet, adding that the objections will then be discussed by the committee.

The project is nothing less than a slap in the face at visiting U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, who has just held warm talks with Israeli President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and urged the Jewish state to make bold moves toward realizing permanent peace with the Palestinians.

No public comments have been available from Biden. Ynet quoted sources as saying that the timing of the approval was coincidental and unrelated to Biden's visit.

Hours before Biden arrived in Israel on Monday, the Israeli Defense Ministry confirmed that it has given the go-ahead to 112 new houses in a settlement in the West Bank. The ministry said that the project was already approved by the previous administration, thus did not contradict an ongoing moratorium on settlement construction announced by the Netanyahu administration late last year.

Both projects were made public as U.S. special envoy George Mitchell was also in the region for peace-making efforts, who on Monday officially announced the commencement of Israeli- Palestinian indirect talks after a 15-month hiatus and called upon both sides to refrain from taking moves that might escalate tensions.

Late last year, the Netanyahu administration announced a 10- month partial freeze of settlement construction in the West Bank, which Israel dubbed a goodwill gesture aimed to help resume peace talks. Yet the Palestinians dismissed the move as insincere, and have stressed that no talks are possible before Israel completely halts Jewish construction both in the West Bank and in East Jerusalem.

In a U.S.-pressured turn, the Palestinian leadership on Sunday gave President Mahmoud Abbas the green light to conduct indirect talks with Israel for four months. Yet they meanwhile reiterated that Israel must totally freeze settlement expansion before any possible resumption of direct talks.