Defying the United States, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected Monday placing any curbs on building homes for Jews around Occupied Jerusalem. “For the past 40 years, no Israeli government ever limited construction in the neighborhoods of Jerusalem,” he said in a speech in parliament, citing areas in the West Bank. Netanyahu made the remarks after Israeli media reported that US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had demanded Israel cancel a project to build 1,600 settler homes in East Jerusalem, a plan that has caused a crisis in US-Israeli relations. In parliament, he called on the Palestinians, who have said they would not restart peace negotiations unless the project was scrapped, not to place new preconditions on the revival of the talks. Netanyahu said there was nearly total consensus among Israeli political parties that what he called Jewish neighborhoods in and around Occupied Jerusalem would remain “part of the state of Israel” in any future peace agreement. The US is pressing Israel to scrap a contentious occupied east Jerusalem building project whose approval has touched off the most serious diplomatic feud with Washington in years, said Israeli officials Monday. Tensions in the city at the center of the spat were high, with police out in large numbers in Jerusalem's volatile Old City in expectation of renewed clashes and Palestinian shopkeepers shuttering their stores for several hours to protest Israel's actions in the city. The Israeli officials said the US also wants Israel to make a significant confidence-building gesture toward the Palestinians, including possibly releasing hundreds of Palestinian prisoners or turning over additional areas of the West Bank to Palestinian control.
