ISRAEL SELLS NEARLY 1,000 NEW HOMES IN EAST JERUSALEM

    Jerusalem, 22 Sha’ban 1434/1 July 2013 (MINA) – Israel is poised to approve incentives for buyers of nearly 1,000 new homes in annexed East Jerusalem despite a major US push to revive peace talks.

    The plan, which will offer prospective buyers a huge discount on 930 new homes to be built in Har Homa, will be discussed by Jerusalem municipality’s finance committee on Monday,  Ma’an News quoted by Mi’raj News Agency (MINA) as reporting, Monday (1/7).

     The reports emerged as US Secretary of State John Kerry was wrapping up an intensive four days of shuttle diplomacy toing and froing between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Mahmoud Abbas in a bid to coax them back to direct negotiations.

     If approved, the plan will lower the price of each new home by 100,000 shekels ($27,500) in a move which will be funded by the housing ministry.

     Har Homa is located on east Jerusalem’s southern outskirts. Analyst say that construction there is likely to have a serious impact on the sector’s boundary with the rest of the West Bank.

    Last week, on the eve of Kerry’s arrival, the municipal planning committee granted final approval for a further 69 new homes in another area of Har Homa.

      The plan to build more than 900 houses in Har Homa was approved in 2011, with tenders issued and construction companies waiting in the wings to start work, but it has been on hold because of its sensitivity, Israeli media Maariv said.

      “The temporary suspension of construction in east Jerusalem is over, despite the visit of Secretary of State Kerry,” Jerusalem councillor Elisha Peleg, a member of Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party told army radio.

     “There is no reason to halt construction any more, because it is now proved that stopping construction in east Jerusalem has not brought about a renewal of negotiations with the Palestinians but has caused a severe shortage of housing,” he said.

      But the reports were not well received in Ramallah, where chief PLO negotiator Saeb Erakat said it proved how serious Israel was about restarting talks.

      “This is Netanyahu’s response to everything Kerry said, to his ideas and to all his efforts,” Erakat told, noting that the news emerged before Kerry wraps up his tour.

      “Today, that Netanyahu is putting 930 obstacles in front of Secretary Kerry’s efforts. Netanyahu alone is responsible for ruining Kerry’s efforts and trying to abort his mission and destroying the two-state solution which is supported by the entire international community.”

      PLO official Erekat said there had been “no breakthrough so far and there is still a gap between the Palestinian and Israeli positions.”

    Israel seized East Jerusalem during the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed it in a move never accepted by the international community. It does not see construction there as settlement building. (T/P09/P04).

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)