Israeli officials on Tuesday defied increasing calls from the international community for a construction freeze in East Jerusalem, insisting that Israel has every right to build anywhere in the holy city.
"Israel will continue to operate in accordance with its vital national interests... Our right to rule and develop Jerusalem is irrefutable," local news service Ynet quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon as saying.
The remarks came shortly after Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko urged the Jewish state to halt all construction in East Jerusalem, including a planned project to build 20 housing units in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood.
With a similar tone, the European Union and France on Tuesday also demanded that construction in East Jerusalem should be stopped.
These calls echoed a statement released on Monday by the US government. US State Department spokesman Philip Crowley stressed that the United States opposes construction in East Jerusalem and West Bank settlements and that unilateral actions cannot prejudge the outcome of peace negotiations.
Despite the mounting pressure, some senior officials in the rightists-dominated Israeli government joined Ayalon in claiming that the Israeli government is entitled to build in the whole Jerusalem, including the Arabs-dominated east sect.
"Israel's government is not a subsidiary of any other world government," Interior Minister Eli Yishai told local TV Channel 10 on Tuesday. "The Israeli government is free to build anywhere in Israel, certainly after having obtained all the relevant permits by law."
"Israel must reject international pressure and challenges to its sovereignty in Jerusalem," the broadcaster quoted Science Minister Daniel Hershkowitz as saying.
At Sunday's cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also stressed that Israel's sovereignty in Jerusalem is "indisputable" and Israel cannot agree to demands for a construction freeze in East Jerusalem.
The spar highlighted a growing rift between Israel and the international community over the settlement issue, including Israel's closest ally the United States, which has vowed to help resume the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, Israel's Intelligence Minister Dan Meridor on Tuesday said that the current US demand for a construction freeze in West Bank settlements goes against past understandings reached by the two nations.
He claimed that Israel entered into a series of understandings with the previous US administration under former President George W. Bush that would greenlight limited settlement construction.
"It is of great importance to us that what the American administration has agreed to is not overlooked," he told foreign reporters, adding that "otherwise, it would raise questions about the legitimacy of future agreements."
However, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton responded that such understandings, even if they do exist, have never become the official position of the US government.
Settlements and Jerusalem are among the key issues impeding the decades-old peace process between the two neighbors. Some 500,000 Israelis now live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday said that should Israel freeze all settlement activities, the Palestinian side would be ready to renew peace negotiations, which have been put on hold for about a year.
Special US envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell is scheduled to visit the region next week, in another bid to settle the recent dust-up and bring the two sides back to the negotiation table.
"In the coming weeks, I think that we will see, I certainly hope so, the resumption of negotiations," said Meridor, pointing out that in the past negotiations were conducted despite settlement expansion.
(Xinhua News Agency July 22, 2009)
