BICOM

A report in this morning’s edition of Maariv claims that the Israeli government has instituted an unofficial freeze on construction in East Jerusalem.

The report says that no new housing units have been built in Jewish neighbourhoods in East Jerusalem including Ramat Shlomo, Ramot and Pisgat Zeev for several months. Maariv correspondent Zeev Kam writes, “The government has very quietly turned the construction freeze in Jerusalem into established policy” and claims that this was confirmed in closed talks by Housing Minister Uri Ariel, who represents Naftali Bennett’s Jewish Home party. Maariv states that Ariel’s office denied the suggestion while the Prime Minister’s Office refused to comment.

The report suggests that in a meeting with former-Knesset Speaker and current Likud MK Reuven Rivlin, Ariel said that policy considerations had made it impossible for him to advance construction projects. An official who attended the meeting is quoted saying “Each time there is a different excuse,” quite often the visit of a senior United States official and that as a result, “a freeze is in effect on the ground, but there has not been any official announcement of this.” Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has demanded a construction freeze in the West Bank and East Jerusalem as a pre-condition to returning to direct talks with Israel. Although the Israeli government has opposed making negotiations conditional upon any gestures, continued settlement construction would likely prove a serious obstacle to US Secretary of State John Kerry’s current initiative to kick-start Israel-Palestinian peace talks.

Meanwhile, Maariv also reports that a group of nineteen former senior European leaders, including four former prime ministers and seven former foreign ministers have sent a joint letter to European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, demanding that she declare Israel an occupying power and take a more active role in the peace process.