East Jerusalem tensions build on housing plan

Palestinian leaders decry Israel's 'unilateral acts', warn of 'explosion'

The Israeli government is advancing construction plans to build about 1,000 housing units in parts of Jerusalem that Palestinians demand for their future state, an official said on Monday.

The plans also include building infrastructure in the West Bank that will be used by Palestinians as well as Israelis.

The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to media.

The Palestinians want East Jerusalem - home of the city's most sensitive holy sites for Jews, Muslims and Christians - as their future capital and oppose any Israeli construction there.

Israel has said all of Jerusalem will forever be its capital, citing historical, religious and security reasons. But the international community, including the United States, does not recognize Israel's annexation of the eastern sector of Jerusalem.

The housing announcement could add to already soaring tensions in East Jerusalem, which has been the scene of violent unrest for months, including near-nightly clashes between police and Palestinian youths.

Tensions have been high since June, when three Israeli teenagers were abducted and killed by Palestinian militants in the West Bank. Israeli extremists retaliated by abducting and killing a Palestinian teenager in East Jerusalem, sparking riots. The abductions set off a series of events that led to the 50-day Gaza military conflict.

Last week, a Palestinian drove his car into a Jerusalem railway station, killing a 3-month-old Israeli-American baby girl, Chaya Zissel Brauna, and wounding several other people. On Sunday, a 22-year-old Ecuadorean woman also died of her wounds sustained in that attack.

The last few months have also seen clashes at Jerusalem's most sensitive holy site between Palestinian stone throwers and Israeli police, adding to the tensions.

Finance Minister Yair Lapid of the centrist Yesh Atid party issued a statement opposing the timing of the housing plan.

"This plan will lead to a serious crisis in Israel-US relations and will harm Israel's standing in the world," Lapid said. The US has condemned similar Israeli construction in the past.

Senior Palestinian official Jibril Rajoub said, "Today (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu approved the building of 1,060 apartments in East Jerusalem ... Such unilateral acts will lead to an explosion."

Rajoub, a senior figure within the Fatah movement of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, said it was likely that such a move would only inflame tensions in the eastern sector of the city that has been swept by almost daily clashes over the past four months.

AP - AFP

(China Daily 10/28/2014 page11)