A senior Israeli diplomatic official on Sunday morning said that Israel would continue to build in Jerusalem, responding to a demand from the US that the government put an end to a housing project to be built in east Jerusalem.
Following a complaint by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, Ambassador to Washington Michael Oren was summoned to a meeting at the US State Department over the week-end where he was told that the Obama administration wanted Israel to put an end to work at the site of the historic Shepherd's Hotel in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah.
The compound, which was acquired by American businessman Irwin Moskowitz in the 1980s, originally belonged to Grand Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini, and then served as a hotel from 1945 until the 1967 Six Day War. Most recently, the site was rented to the Jerusalem border police as a base.
Abbas reportedly told the Americans that allowing Jewish housing in the Muslim neighborhood would shift the demographic balance in east Jerusalem.
According to the diplomatic official, "Israel builds in Jerusalem and will continue to do so in the future as well. Those in charge of this are Israeli enforcement and planning officials.
"We're talking about private land," he added. "So far Washington has not taken issue with Israel over construction in Jerusalem."
Moskowitz has been behind a series of land acquisitions in east Jerusalem, including the construction of a Jewish housing project in Ras el-Amud. More than a dozen small Jewish enclaves exist, or are under construction, in or near Arab neighborhoods in east Jerusalem, where some 1,000 Jewish residents now live.
Responding to the US demand to freeze the project, Diaspora Affairs Minister Yuli Edelstein said, "A demand to cease construction in a neighborhood situated only several meters from the Hebrew University proves how dangerous it is to be dragged into a debate on settlement freeze, which will lead us to a total demand to freeze our normal lives throughout the entire State of Israel."
Likud MK Ophir Akunis said that "There is a broad consensus in the Israeli public regarding the unity of Jerusalem as Israel's eternal capital. All of the world's countries must understand that any attempt to harm Jerusalem's unity and Israel's sovereignty will be rejected outright.
Etgar Lefkovits contributed to this report
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