BICOM

Israel’s UN envoy Ron Prosor defended the authorisation given this week to several plans for construction in East Jerusalem against sharp criticism from United Nations (UN) Security Council members yesterday. Prosor said, “Settlements are not and never have been the main obstacle to peace. The real obstacle to peace is the Palestinians’ demand of return, their refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, the continued terrorism and incitement against Israel.”

Prosor also called it “hypocrisy” to “oppose Jewish territorial contiguity between Ma’aleh Adumim and Jerusalem,” while at the same time calling for Palestinian territorial contiguity between the West Bank and Gaza, which would bisect Israel.

Israel’s Interior Ministry and the Jerusalem Municipality’s District Planning and Construction Committee are conducting a series of planning meetings this week over construction plans in East Jerusalem, including authorisation given yesterday for plans to build 2,612 homes in the Givat Hamatos area. The construction plans were discussed during yesterday’s meeting on the Middle East at the UN Security Council. The United States voted against the council issuing a statement on the issue, leading the remaining fourteen members to issue their own critical responses.

A joint statement said that UK, Germany, France and Portugal are “extremely concerned by, and strongly opposed, the plans by Israel to expand settlement construction in the West Bank, including in east Jerusalem,” and demanded that “all settlement activity, including in east Jerusalem, must cease immediately.”

Meanwhile in Israel the spate of building is widely linked to the current election campaign. Right-wing opponents of Prime Minister Netanyahu accused the government of only announcing new construction, but without any real intention to build.