PM: The Palestinians are Trying to Create an Artificial Crisis

by Shlomo Cesana, Yoni Hirsch and News Agencies

Day before Kerry visit, Israel officially issues tenders for construction of 1,700 new housing units in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria • We made it clear to the Palestinians that we would be building during the course of the negotiations, says Netanyahu.

Construction in Jerusalem's Pisgat Ze'ev neighborhood | Photo credit: Reuters

A week after the second stage of the release of Palestinian prisoners last week, and a day before U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was set to arrive in Israel to resume mediating Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, Israel on Sunday announced the expansion of construction in Jerusalem and other communities beyond the Green Line. 

The Housing Ministry and the Israel Land Authority officially announced that the state had issued tenders for the construction of 1,700 new housing units, as first reported by Israel Hayom last week. 

The tenders are for the construction of about 700 housing units in Jerusalem -- some 387 units in the neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo and 311 units in the neighborhood of Gilo. In addition, some 250 tenders in Gilo and 130 tenders for subsidized housing in the neighborhood of Homat Shmuel are to be reissued. 

In Judea and Samaria, some 1,030 new housing units will be built overall. All the tenders are for areas that Israel intends to keep under any future peace agreement.

"The tender bidding process should take between two to three months and contractors could begin to build after about a year," a Housing Ministry spokesman said in a statement published on a government website. 

Kerry, who helped revive Israeli-Palestinian negotiations in July after a three-year break, is now in Cairo on a Middle East visit that will also bring him to Israel and the West Bank.

His meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders are likely to focus on the peace talks, which have shown little sign of progress, and Iran's nuclear program.

Remarking on the new housing tenders, Housing Minister Uri Ariel said that "we are continuing with our policy of issuing tenders for land for construction all across the country." 

But Yariv Oppenheimer, the secretary-general of the left-wing Peace Now organization, insisted that "on the eve of Kerry's visit, the government of Israel is spitting in the face of the secretary of state." 

On Wednesday, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, described the construction plans as "destructive for the peace process."

Kerry, speaking in Cairo on the first stop of an 11-day tour, sought Sunday to calm fears that peace talks were faltering. 

"I remain hopeful, and we will make every effort in the United States to move the process forward in a fair-handed way, a balanced way that reflects the complexity of these issues," he said.

He stressed that Washington remained committed to helping the parties reach a final peace deal, but acknowledged recent tensions over Israel's construction plans. "There is no doubt ... that the settlements have disturbed people's perceptions of whether or not people are serious and are moving in the right direction," he admitted.

Palestinians, who seek a state of their own in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, fear settlements could deny them a viable and contiguous state. 

Some 500,000 Jews and about 2.5 million Palestinians live in Judea and Samaria and east Jerusalem.

Meanwhile, in light of the Palestinian objections to the construction, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at a meeting of Likud ministers on Sunday, "The Palestinians knew that we would be building during the course of the negotiations. It was made clear that it would be part of the process to resume the talks, and they were told in no uncertain terms that Israel would not restrict itself in any way during this time."

"All the Palestinian claims that this is a violation are an attempt to create an artificial crisis. Israel has fulfilled all the commitments it has taken upon itself," Netanyahu said at the weekly cabinet meeting. 

"There is no doubt that international recognition of the right of the Jewish people to our own state in our historic homeland is important, and the refusal to recognize us has been the root of the conflict," Netanyahu said.

"In order for there to be peace between us and our Palestinian neighbors, they must recognize the right of the Jewish people to a state in the homeland. That means that in any final deal they would have to remove their nationalist demands -- the right of return or any other nationalist demand of the State of Israel.

"The other element is the security that can both protect the peace and protect the State of Israel in the event that this peace unravels. These security arrangements are important to us. We firmly insist on them, and they will certainly include many things, but first and foremost, Israel's security border will remain along the Jordan [River]." 

Shlomo Cesana, Yoni Hirsch and News Agencies

Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=13089

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