Israel plan declaration of war
Palestine-Israel, Politics, 7/28/1997

Palestinians on July 27 condemned an Israeli decision to build a Jewish settler enclave in the heart of Arab East Jerusalem as a "declaration of war."

News of the decision by the Jerusalem municipality emerged late on July 26, prompting Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to rush out a statement vowing to prevent the plan from going ahead now.

Israel's peace talks with the Palestinian Authority (PA) have been in crisis since March when Netanyahu broke ground on a Jewish settlement on a hilltop at the edge of Arab East Jerusalem.

Israel Television said the decision on July 26 granted a permit to Irving Moskowitz, a US Jewish businessman who bankrolls Jewish settlement in occupied areas, to build for Jews in the 11,000-strong Arab "neighborhood" of Ras al Amoud.

"It is a known declaration of war on the Palestinians in East Jerusalem, on the Palestinians in general, and a complete disregard of the spirit of the signed agreement," Arafat's adviser Ahmed Tibi told Israeli army radio.

Saab Erekat, Arafat's senior negotiator, said the Palestinian Authority had protested to Netanyahu's office insisting that the plan be scrapped.

"We have made great efforts to try to put the peace process back on track but Israel is insisting on destroying the peace process," Erekat said in Gaza strip.

Yossi Sarid, head of the Meretz Party in Israel's parliament, gave warning of a burst of violence over the project.

He likened the decision to Netanyahu's opening of a tourist tunnel entrance near Moslem holy sites in Jerusalem last September which sparked clashes and gun battles that took the lives of 61 Palestinians and 15 Israeli soldiers.

"I am really certain that the building in Ras al Amoud is the match that will light the great fire in the territories, a great fire that will burn lives of both Jews and Arabs," Sarid, a former peace negotiator, told Israel Radio.

Israel's Jerusalem municipal planning commission gave conditional approval last December to a plan for 132 settler homes in Ras al Amoud. The approval on July 26 was for a scaled-down project on the same eland East of Jerusalem's walled old city. Israel television said this apparently did not require ministerial approval.

"We are fighting over Jerusalem here and one can imagine here are elements who don't like that," Olmert said.

Netanyahu's office voiced surprise at the decision.

Please add a link on your webiste pointing to ArabicNews.com and bookmark ArabicNews.com & subscribe to our daily email news bulletin.

Search