International outrage

The US administration said Tuesday that it was "dismayed" over Israel's approval to expand Jewish settlement construction in Jerusalem, voicing objection to Israeli practices in Jerusalem related to housing.

"At a time when we are working to relaunch negotiations, these actions make it more difficult for our efforts to succeed," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs, who is accompanying President Barack Obama on his Asia tour, said in a statement.

"Neither party should engage in efforts or take actions that could unilaterally pre-empt, or appear to pre-empt, negotiations," said Gibbs, adding that Washington also objects to other Israeli practices in Jerusalem related to housing, including the continuing pattern of evictions and demolitions of Palestinian homes.

Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) on Wednesday slammed Israel for approving the building of new homes in Gilo.

"Israel, the occupying power, steals the occupied Palestinian land to build illegal settlements by force and violence," the PLO said in a statement sent to the media. "Israel undermines all international efforts to make fair peace in the region."

Saeb Erekat, a senior Palestinian negotiator, said the Israel-Palestinian peace talks were aimed at creating a Palestinian statehood alongside Israel, "but Israel builds settlements on the same land that would be the ground of Palestinian state."

"Israel should choose peace or settlements," Erekat told reporters.

A statement issued Tuesday on behalf of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that he "deplored" the move.

"He believes that such actions undermine efforts for peace and cast doubt on the viability of the two-state solution," the statement said.

The impact

Most of the international community believes the plan to expand Gilo beyond its current limits is a breach of international law, said Daniel Seidemann, a Jewish lawyer in Jerusalem who works with organizations that defend Palestinian rights in the city.

In August 1980, the UN Security Council approved resolution 478.Endorsed by 14-0 with the Americans abstaining, the resolution declared the Israeli Jerusalem Law approved earlier in the same year null and void.

That law stipulated that "Jerusalem, complete and united, is the capital of Israel."

Seidemann is more concerned about the impacts of the Gilo move than its legal status.

"It dictates the outcome of a final-status agreement. It's a unilateral action and undermines the credibility of the peace process. That is what interests me and not the technicalities of international law," said Seidemann.

Ira Sharkansky, professor emeritus of political science at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, said that "No government of the United States has ever publicly recognized the legitimacy of Israeli construction over the Green Line, but Obama has increased the tempo."

He argues that by objecting so publicly to the Gilo plan, Obama is making it even harder for the Israelis and Palestinians to begin talking to one another.

"If the Obama administration has contributed anything to the peace process, it has hardened the position expressed by Palestinians, provoked the Israeli right to demand more settlement activity on both sides of the security barrier, and has caused dismay among the Israeli center and left," he said.

Seidemann said the Israeli act of pushing ahead with construction in occupied territory is killing the peace process.

Like all Jewish Israelis, he believed Gilo will remain in Israeli hands in any final-status agreement with the Palestinians.

However, he said the expansion of Gilo, and consequently the expansion of Jerusalem in the area deemed as occupied territory by the international community, is highly problematic as Obama is trying to reboot the stalled peace process.