"Israel" rejects US settlement talks

Hawkish 'Israeli' Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejects the US' demand to stop the planned housing project in the annexed East Jerusalem (al-Quds).

The US State Department last weekend summoned the 'Israeli' Ambassador to Washington Michael Oren regarding the settlement issue, an 'Israeli' official told AFP on Sunday on condition of anonymity.

Oren was told to inform the authorities in Tel Aviv that Washington wanted an immediate halt to the project of building homes on the site of the former Shepherd Hotel.

In the latest dispute between the two allies, Netanyahu flatly rejected the US State Department's demand and said that his government will not place restrictions on Jewish homes in a city 'Israel' considers to be its undivided future capital.

Netanyahu was referring to the ongoing project in East Jerusalem's (al-Quds) Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood located near 'Israeli' government buildings and the British and US consulates in East Jerusalem, which received a construction permit from city hall three months ago.

"We cannot accept the idea that Jews will not have the right to live or to build anywhere in East Jerusalem. We cannot accept such restrictions," Netanyahu said at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting.

This is while senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told AFP that "there is no middle solution on the issue of settlements. 'Israel' must stop them immediately, both in the West Bank and Jerusalem."

'Israel's' Channel Two television reported that a new project has been launched to build 69 extra homes in the East Jerusalem (al-Quds) neighborhood of Ras al-Hamud which is to be named Maale Zeitim, adding to some one hundred homes that already exist there.