Israel tried Wednesday to calm tempers after a building plan in East Jerusalem raised tensions with the United States in the midst of a visit by US Vice President Joe Biden, DPA reported.
Israel's Interior Ministry announced late Tuesday that the Jerusalem Planning and District Committee had approved the construction of 1,600 new homes in Ramat Shlomo, an ultra-Orthodox neighbourhood in northern Jerusalem built on occupied West Bank land near the Palestinian village of Shuafat.
Interior Minister Eli Yishai of the ultra-Orthodox Shas coalition party said Wednesday that it should be "clear to everyone" that East Jerusalem was not included in the 10-month moratorium of Israeli construction in West Bank settlements announced by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in late November.
But he said he had meant no harm or disrespect to Biden.
Biden, in Jerusalem since late Monday and scheduled to visit the West Bank cities of Ramallah and Bethlehem Wednesday, instructed White House staff to issue an unusual statement in the midst of his visit, sharply condemning the move.
"The substance and timing of the announcement, particularly with the launching of proximity talks, is precisely the kind of step that undermines the trust we need right now and runs counter to the constructive discussions that I've had here in Israel," said the statement issued in Washington.
It referred to the Washington-brokered indirect, or "proximity," talks between the Israelis and Palestinians.
Washington's envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, had announced on Biden's arrival late Monday, after a freeze in the peace process of more than one year, that the sides had agreed to hold indirect negotiations.
The Israeli interior minister said the Planning and District Committee was a local body that was not obliged to update the central government about "technical" and "procedural" matters. He said the construction plan in Ramat Shlomo was three years old and still passing through various stages of approval.
"Jerusalem is not included in the freeze, and that is clear to everyone," Yishai told Israel Radio. "There is no place for a freeze in Jerusalem."
"I do think we must show sensitivity to the visit of a senior American figure, and had we known about this in advance, ... we would have postponed it two weeks, three," he added.
"We have no interest in provoking anyone," he said.