JERUSALEM, March 10, (RTRS): US Vice-President Joe Biden on Tuesday condemned Israeli plans to build 1,600 more homes on occupied land where Palestinians seek statehood, announced in the middle of his visit to help revive peace negotiations.
Israel’s refusal to stop settlement building despite US urging has been a major obstacle to a resumption of the talks, and the announcement put Biden in an uncomfortable position ahead of a meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
“I condemn the decision by the government of Israel to advance planning for new housing units,” Biden said in a statement issued after he arrived 90 minutes late for a dinner with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
He said the blueprint for Ramat Shlomo, a religious Jewish settlement in an area of the West Bank annexed to Jerusalem by Israel, “undermines the trust we need right now and runs counter to the constructive discussions that I’ve had here in Israel.”
The Palestinians had dropped a demand that Israel freeze settlement building and agreed to up to four months of indirect negotiations after receiving Arab League endorsement last week.
“Israel is not interested in negotiations, nor in peace,” Abbas aide Nabil Abu Rdainah told Reuters, adding that the Ramat Shlomo project “will lead to negotiations being obstructed.”
An Israeli cabinet minister apologised on Wednesday after Israel embarrassed visiting US Vice President Joe Biden by announcing plans to build 1,600 more homes for Jewish settlers.
Biden condemned the project, whose announcement clouded a mission to Israel that had been focused on reassuring Israelis that President Barack Obama was committed to their security in the face of a possible Iranian nuclear threat.
“This should not have happened during a visit by the US vice president,” Welfare Minister Isaac Herzog said on Army Radio. “This is a real embarrassment and now we have to express our apologies for this serious blunder.”
Palestinian officials said the planned construction near Jerusalem could kill any chance of reviving peace talks, which Israel and the Palestinians had agreed this week to restart through US mediation of indirect negotiations.
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said the settlement project would top the agenda of a meeting Biden was to hold later in the day with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who would ask him to press Israel to revoke the decision.
Biden kept Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara waiting for 90 minutes at a dinner they were hosting for him and his spouse Jill on Tuesday, after the construction plan was made public.
Aides to Netanyahu said he was caught off-guard by the announcement of the project by the Interior Ministry, run by the ultraorthodox, nationalist Shas party, a main partner in his governing coalition.
“I condemn the decision by the government of Israel to advance planning for new housing units,” Biden said in a statement issued after he arrived for the meal.
He said the blueprint for Ramat Shlomo, a religious Jewish settlement in an area of the West Bank annexed to Jerusalem by Israel, “undermines the trust we need right now and runs counter to the constructive discussions that I’ve had here in Israel”.
Netanyahu ordered in November a 10-month halt to new housing starts in West Bank settlements but exempted those Israel considers part of Jerusalem and projects for Jewish homes in the eastern sector of the city captured in 1967.