JERUSALEM - Israel is going to build 1,400 new apartments in the West Bank and the disputed part of Jerusalem, officials announced, despite objections by Palestinians and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.The move reflects the political weakness of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert who continues to support construction in disputed areas because it allows him to keep his fragile coalition intact and further damages AbbasÂ’ standing. Olmert insisted Israel is not building new settlements, nor is it confiscating additional land for existing ones. Instead, he said, Israel is building only in places it intends to keep even after a peace treaty is signed.
Palestinians charge that the ongoing construction is sabotaging peace efforts. Though they tacitly agree that Israel will, in the end, retain some or all of these areas, the bulldozers, cranes and work crews are tangible evidence to Palestinians that peace negotiations are not helping their cause, further complicating AbbasÂ’ position.
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An announcement of 600 new housing units to go up in Jerusalem came from the Jerusalem city hall, but the larger project 800 new apartments in Beitar, an ultra-Orthodox settlement outside Jerusalem, came from Shas. Olmert is not in a position to deny it: Shas leaders have made repeated threats to bring down his government if Olmert crosses them.
East Jerusalem, captured in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed by Israel shortly afterward, is home to 180,000 Jews, who live in neighborhoods built after the war. Because of the annexation, Israel does not consider construction there to be settlement activity, but the Palestinians and the international community do, because no one has recognized IsraelÂ’s annexation. An additional 270,000 Jews live in West Bank settlements, most of them in three major blocs.