Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is scheduled to meet Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas Thursday in a bid to defuse a crisis over Israel's attempts to build housing units in east Jerusalem. The Palestinians are miffed at a tender from Israel's Housing Ministry regarding construction of 307 housing units in the southeast Jerusalem neighborhood of Har Homa immediately after the Annapolis Middle East conference. "The issue has rocked negotiations between the two sides which kicked off on December 12 and was expected to take long strides before the expected visit of US President George Bush next month," sources told The Press Trust of India (PTI). Official sources in Jerusalem were quoted by daily Ha'aretz as saying that the Har Homa imbroglio is the result of a decision by low-ranking government bureaucrats in the Housing Ministry and that the Prime Minister was not informed about it in advance.
