Hanan Awarekeh
10/03/2010 US Vice President Joe Biden was meeting with Palestinian leaders on Wednesday as his bid to bolster new peace talks was marred by Israel's approval of settlement expansion in occupied east Jerusalem.
Criticism of Israel's green light for the construction of 1,600 new settler homes in occupied east Jerusalem mounted on Wednesday as Biden was to meet Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and his prime minister Salam Fayyad in the West Bank political capital Ramallah.
Israel on Monday had already given the go-ahead for 112 new homes in a West Bank settlement in an exception to a partial moratorium on settlement construction announced in November.
Earlier in the morning, Biden held talks in occupied Jerusalem with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the representative of the Middle East diplomatic Quartet which is made up of the European Union, the United States, the United Nations and Russia.
The Israeli announcement came just two days after the Palestinians grudgingly agreed to indirect talks after months of US shuttle diplomacy and coincided with Biden's meeting with top Israeli officials.
Biden showed his displeasure by showing up 90 minutes late for a dinner at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's residence on Tuesday night. "I condemn the decision by the government of Israel to advance planning for new housing units in east Jerusalem," Biden said in a statement.
"The substance and timing of the announcement, particularly with the launching of proximity talks, is precisely the kind of step that undermines the trust we need right now and runs counter to the constructive discussions that I've had here in Israel."
Moments earlier, U.S. President Barack Obama's top spokesman, Robert Gibbs, condemned occupied Jerusalem's announcement from the White House.
Netanyahu sought to alleviate the new tensions with the United States. He reportedly promised Biden "No one was seeking to embarrass you or undermine your visit - on the contrary, you are a true friend to Israel."
Netanyahu told Biden during their meeting that he had had no prior knowledge of the decision to authorize the additional construction, and added that the program had been drafted three years ago and only received initial authorization that day. It could take several months, Netanyahu assured him, before the program is granted final approval.
Netanyahu told his guest that the regional councils are not under the political leadership's direct authority, and that his administration tries not to interfere with their work.
A high-ranking official in Tel Aviv, however, said Netanyahu has "no problem" with construction in occupied Jerusalem and has no intention of apologizing for building there. The official acknowledged, however, that the announcement's timing was harmful to Israel's diplomatic interests. "We didn't want to humiliate Biden or sow division while he is in Israel," the official said.
Israel's Interior Ministry announced that approval had been granted to build new housing units in Ramat Shlomo, an ultra-Orthodox community of 20,000 north of downtown occupied Jerusalem, which borders the Palestinian village of Shuafat.
The program, authorized by the Jerusalem District Planning and Building Committee, is one of the largest construction projects Israel has launched in occupied Jerusalem in recent years. The Israeli ministry said the plan is intended to ease the ultra-Orthodox community's housing shortage, and 30 percent of the units will be relatively small and inexpensive, aimed at young couples.
Occupied Jerusalem city council member Meir Margalit (Meretz) said of the plan, "The timing is not coincidental - it is a response from Eli Yishai to Netanyahu's declaration of renewed talks with the Palestinian Authority." Yishai, the Israeli interior minister and deputy prime minister, is chair of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party.
"The fact that Yishai can't wait a few more days until Biden leaves the country proves his goal was to give the American administration a slap in the face," Margalit said.
Even the office of Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Wednesday blasted the announcement. "The entourage of Defense Minister Ehud Barak expresses its anger after the unwarranted announcement which affects peace negotiations with the Palestinians - negotiations of the highest interest for Israel," his office said in a statement.
Netanyahu and Biden also discussed the Iranian nuclear threat, and both leaders agreed on the need to pursue further sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
A senior U.S. official said both Washington and Tel Aviv "are working on the assumption that we will reach a fourth round of sanctions against Iran at the United Nations Security Council by late March or early April."
The Palestinian Authority issued a strong rebuke of the Israeli announcement, with Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for Palestinian President Abbas, warning the move would derail negotiations before they had even begun.
"It is apparent that the Israeli government does not want negotiations, nor does it want peace," Abu Rudeineh said, according to the Ma'an news agency. "The American administration must respond to this provocation with effective measures."
Abbas contacted Arab League chief Amr Moussa by phone and urged him to speak with the heads of Arab states over forming a concerted response to the building program.
Yasser Abed Rabbo, head of the Palestine Liberation Organization Executive Committee, told Haaretz that Israel's declaration shows "the Israeli government does not want peace, it does not want a solution. There is no clearer message; there is a no more provocative measure."
Biden will meet with Abbas in Ramallah on Wednesday, and U.S. special envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell is expected to arrive in the region next week to conduct the second round of proximity talks between Tel Aviv and Ramallah.
The U.S. administration hopes it can return to direct discussions between junior-level Israeli and Palestinian officials within a few weeks.
The talks are expected to deal with all of the core issues: borders, water refugees, security arrangements, settlements and the status of occupied Jerusalem. Although the Arab League had set aside four months to allow the talks to progress, Mitchell said his administration is not operating according to a certain fixed date, and that negotiations will proceed as long as necessary.
River to Sea
Uprooted Palestinian
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