Israel is looking into building 10,000 new homes for Jews in east Jerusalem, Israel's housing minister said yesterday, angering Palestinians who said the move threatened to hobble fledgling peace talks.

Palestinians want the eastern part of Jerusalem, which Israel captured from Jordan in 1967 and later annexed, for the capital of a future state, and are already furious over another Israeli plan announced earlier this month to add 300 homes in an existing Jewish neighborhood there.

The Housing Ministry has carried out a "preliminary check" into building a new Jewish neighborhood at Atarot, near the Palestinian neighborhood of Qalandia, Housing Minister Zeev Boim said yesterday.

The move was motivated by a housing crunch in Jewish neighborhoods, Boim said. A plan to build thousands of homes on parkland in west Jerusalem, inside Israel, was torpedoed recently by environmental groups, and Boim said that left Israel no choice but to build in east Jerusalem.

Even if the planning process moves past the preliminary stage, it will take years for construction to begin. But Palestinians immediately criticized the move, saying it compromised the peace talks that officially got under way last week after seven years of violence.

"Why would they destroy the prospect for peace with such activities?" said Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat.

Agencies

(China Daily 12/20/2007 page8)