Israel orders police to strengthen control of East Jerusalem: report

JERUSALEM, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- The Israeli government has instructed its police to increase their presence in East Jerusalem, said a governmental memo leaked to Israeli media.

Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aaronovitch instructed police to increased their activities in the eastern part of the holy city, so as to "increase law enforcement and improve police services there," local daily Ha'aretz reported on Tuesday, citing a document entitled "Ministerial Policy 2009-2010."

The document said this is "part of a wider move to strengthen Israeli sovereignty over East Jerusalem."

The status of Jerusalem is a key issue in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Israel perceives Jerusalem as its indivisible capital, while the Palestinians insist the capital of their future state be located in East Jerusalem, which was captured by the Jewish state in 1967 and deemed occupied territory by the United Nations.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is meeting Tuesday with U.S. peace envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell, who is expected to push for a freeze of Jewish settlement activities in the West Bank as well as in East Jerusalem.

However, Netanyahu, speaking at a session of the parliament's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Monday, vowed that his government will not halt construction in Jerusalem.

Aaronovitch, in the document, also called for increasing police activity in non-Jewish towns and villages within Israel, which means to increase police visibility and presence, and shorten response time, according to the report.