The Israeli government has imposed a de facto freeze on new Jewish construction in the city's disputed eastern sector despite Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's public insistence it would not be stopped in the face of US pressure, Occupied Jerusalem municipal officials said Monday. The apparent freeze would likely reflect Netanyahu's need to mend a serious rift with the US over Israeli construction on lands the Palestinians claim for a future state, and to bring the Palestinians back to the negotiating table. However, it remained unclear if the slowdown actually constituted a moratorium or how long it would last. An Israeli government official claimed a weekslong delay in reviewing plans for new construction was a bureaucratic issue and not evidence of a freeze. But the fact that new plans are not going ahead dovetails with signs that the Palestinians might ease their demand that the contentious construction stop before they resume peace talks. Jerusalem Councilman Meir Margalit of the dovish Meretz Party said top Jerusalem officials intimately involved with construction projects told him Netanyahu's office ordered a freeze after Israel infuriated Washington last month by announcing a major new East Jerusalem housing development during a visit by US Vice President Joe Biden. Palestinians claim that sector of the city as their future capital and after word of the project got out, they called off indirect peace talks that the US was about to start brokering. Palestinian leaders will seek backing this week from the Arab League to participate in those talks. “The government ordered the Interior Ministry immediately after the Biden incident to not even talk about new construction for Jewish homes in East Jerusalem,” Margalit said. “It's not just that building has stopped: The committees that deal with this are not even meeting anymore.” He asked not to identify the officials who informed him of the order because they had not approved the disclosure of their names. A Jerusalem municipal spokesman did not immediately return a call seeking interviews with the officials. Another councilman, Meir Turujamen, who sits on the Interior Ministry committee that approves building plans, said his panel has not met since the Biden visit, after previously meeting once weekly. “I wrote a letter about three weeks or a month ago asking (Interior Minister Eli) Yishai why the committee isn't convening,” he said. “To this day I haven't received an answer.
