Israel said on Wednesday it was examining a plan to construct a new Jewish settlement in occupied east Jerusalem, weeks after sparking world criticism for expanding another neighbourhood in the city.
"This is a preliminary examination of an initial construction plan. Such feasibility checks are done all year round on all areas with building potential in Jerusalem," Housing Minister Zeev Boim said in a statement. "The ministry has to offer a solution to the housing problem in Jerusalem."
The Palestinians warned that any settlement activity could derail the recently revived peace talks between the two sides, which got off to a shaky start as it is because of Israel expanding another settlement in the holy city. "It is impossible to make peace and settlements at the same time," senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat told AFP. "We consider these steps as threatening the beginning of the final negotiations between the two sides."
Boim's statement was issued in response to a report in the Haaretz daily which said that the minister, a member of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's centrist Kadima party, had approved a construction plan in the neighbourhood of Atarot.
According to Haaretz, the plan being examined would see the construction of more than 10,000 flats - making it the largest Jewish settlement in east Jerusalem, which the Palestinians hope to make the capital of their promised future state.
Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said that "there has been no decision taken and no authorisation has been given" to the new construction. Israel captured and annexed Arab east Jerusalem in the 1967 Six Day War and later declared the holy city its "eternal, undivided" capital - moves not recognised by the international community.
Atarot lies some five kilometres (three miles) north of the Green Line between the Palestinian villages of Ram and Bir Nabala. Although it is within the Jerusalem municipal boundaries established by Israel, the Palestinians consider the area part of the occupied West Bank.
Two weeks ago, Israel invited bids for more than 300 new housing units in another settlement of occupied and annexed east Jerusalem, known as Har Homa to Israelis and as Jebel Abu Ghneim to Palestinians.
The expansion came a week after Israelis and Palestinians revived peace talks at a conference in the US city of Annapolis and sparked criticism from the Palestinians, the European Union and the United States.
At the conference, both Israel and the Palestinians pledged to abide by a four-year-old internationally drafted peace blueprint, the first phase of which calls on Israel to halt settlement activity and on the Palestinians to improve security.
Israel does not consider construction in east Jerusalem settlement activity because of its annexation of the city. The international community considers all settlements in the occupied West Bank, including east Jerusalem, illegal. Prior to the Annapolis conference, Olmert pledged to freeze construction of new settlements in the West Bank and to dismantle wildcast outposts - settlements not authorised by the government. But he said so-called "natural growth" of existing settlements would go on. Palestinians have demanded that Israel halt all settlement activity.
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