JERUSALEM, Jan 16, (Agencies): Israeli authorities said Sunday they are moving ahead with a new proposal to build 1,400 apartments in a contested part of Jerusalem, enraging Palestinians who denounced the plan as another settler land grab.
Palestinians already have broken off peace talks with Israel for refusing to halt construction in east Jerusalem and the West Bank. They claim these areas, which Israel captured in 1967, and the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip for a future state. Jewish settlement construction has stoked frictions with the United States as well.
Jerusalem officials confirmed they were aware of the plan, but would not say when the city’s planning committee, which needs to approve such projects, would vote on it.
“Jerusalem City Hall continues to advance construction for Arabs and Jews alike according to the master plan,” the spokesman’s office said. “New construction in Jerusalem is necessary to the development of the city.”

Israel annexed east Jerusalem after the 1967 Mideast war and claims the entire city as its capital. The international community has never recognized the annexation, and the Palestinians hope to make east Jerusalem the capital of their future state.
The latest plan, to build 1,400 apartments in the existing Jewish neighborhood of Gilo, is being promoted by the Jerusalem Development Authority, a joint corporation of the Israeli government and the Jerusalem municipality.
Gilo is a sprawling development on Jerusalem’s southern edge, built on lands captured in 1967.
Although construction would likely not begin for years, the Palestinians said the new plan undermined hopes for peace.

“The plan is to give the maximum support to the settler movement, to grab the most land in a short time, alter the status quo and create facts on the ground,” said Husam Zomlot, a spokesman for the Palestinian government in the West Bank.
The US Embassy wasn’t immediately available for comment. It has condemned similar projects as being an obstacle to peace, and last week harshly criticized Israel for demolishing a historic hotel in an Arab neighborhood of east Jerusalem to make way for 20 apartments for Jews.
If approved, the Gilo project would create territorial contiguity between the Gush Etzion settlement bloc south of Jerusalem and the city itself, said Meir Margalit, a Jerusalem councilman from the dovish Meretz Party.
He predicted it would take years to build the project, which would also require Interior Ministry approval, but warned it would nonetheless damage peace prospects. Since talks broke down in September, the US has been trying to find a compromise formula to bring the sides back to the negotiating table.
“I hope (the plan) will roil the Americans and shake them out of their coma,” Margalit said. “If there is any chance to bring the Palestinians back to negotiations, then we have to stop this project.”

Also:
TEL AVIV: More than 10,000 Israelis demonstrated on Saturday for “the defence of democracy” after parliament decided to probe the funding of left-wing NGOs and rights groups, an AFP correspondent said.
“This is one of the most important demonstrations in years. It is important for our message to be heard by the government,” one of the organisers, Yariv Oppenheimer, told AFP.
Organisers said up to 15,000 demonstrators, most of the Jews but including Arabs, gathered in downtown Tel Aviv and then marched to the museum where they held a rally.
The demonstration was organised following calls by several groups and leftist parties for “the defence of democracy while it is still possible.”
Protesters held Israeli and Palestinian flags and banners with messages that read: “Let’s protect democracy so that it can protect us”; “Democracy cannot be built on racist laws” and “Mad right: a danger for Israel.”
On Jan 5, MPs voted to form a parliamentary inquiry to investigate the funding of rights groups allegedly helping to build war crimes cases abroad against Israeli military personnel.
The parliamentary probe focuses on Breaking the Silence, a group of army veterans who bear witness to abuses they have seen or taken part in during their military service in the occupied Palestinian territories. (AFP)


GAZA CITY: Israeli soldiers shot a Palestinian man in the leg on Sunday as he collected gravel along Gaza’s northern border, a Palestinian medical source said.
Adham Abu Selmiya, spokesman for the Hamas-run health services in the Gaza Strip, said the 21-year-old was taken to Shifa hospital in Gaza City for treatment.
The Israeli military said its soldiers opened fire after “several suspicious persons” approached Gaza’s border fence with the Jewish state.
“The soldiers opened fire in the direction of the persons’ lower bodies after first firing into the air,” a military spokesman told AFP.
Palestinians in Gaza frequently forage through the rubble along the enclave’s border with Israel, seeking construction materials which are otherwise in short supply because of an Israeli-imposed blockade.
Israel imposes a 300-metre (yard) buffer zone along the length of the border as a “no-go” area where anyone who comes too close is likely to be shot at by soldiers manning watchtowers.