East Jerusalem

JERUSALEM — Israel gave preliminary approval yesterday for 130 new apartments in disputed East Jerusalem, the area the Palestinians want as the capital of their hoped-for state. The decision by Jerusalem city authorities comes as peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians are at a standstill over building in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. City Hall spokesman Elie Isaacson said the new housing was approved for Gilo, a Jewish housing development in East Jerusalem. The project, which would substitute an apartment complex for a planned hotel, still needs final approval from...

JERUSALEM - Former prime minister Ehud Olmert urged Israeli leaders Sunday to relinquish the idea of a unified Jerusalem if they truly want peace, contending in a pair of interviews that years of government neglect have kept the Jewish and Arab sectors irreparably divided. The comments, made as Israel marked the 45th anniversary of capturing East Jerusalem, were nearly unprecedented for a mainstream Israeli leader and put Olmert at odds with his successor, Benjamin Netanyahu. Celebrating Israel's control of the city on the Jewish state's "Jerusalem Day," Netanyahu...

JERUSALEM — Israel hotly defended its new construction plans for disputed East Jerusalem against criticism from President Obama, Palestinians, and the European Union, insisting yesterday that it never agreed to halt the building and sharpening a crisis that threatens to derail peace talks. A harsh statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office insisted that “Jerusalem is not a settlement. It is the capital of the state of Israel.’’ It continued: “Israel sees no link between the peace process and its development plans in Jerusalem.’’ The...

JERUSALEM - Thousands of Palestinians protested on Friday against Israeli policies of land seizure and control of Jerusalem, leading to clashes with Israeli troops in which a 20-year-old was killed and scores of others injured. The annual protest, known as Land Day, drew demonstrators in groups of hundreds in locations within Israel as well as in the West Bank, Jerusalem, and Gaza. There were also solidarity marches in neighboring Lebanon and Jordan. But weeks of organizing for a global march on Jerusalem produced less than expected as Israel's borders...

JERUSALEM — The Israeli government is moving ahead with plans to build nearly 1,300 apartments in disputed East Jerusalem, an official said yesterday, drawing a harsh US response just as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in the United States for meetings with American leaders. The plan drew renewed attention to Israeli settlement policies just as Washington was pressing Israel to curb construction in a bid to get stalled peace talks back on track. Israel’s Interior Ministry said the decision to seek public comment on the building plans was merely a procedural step.

JERUSALEM -- Palestinians running in Jan. 25 parliamentary elections would be allowed to campaign in Jerusalem, Israeli police said today, reversing a previous ban on Palestinian political activity in the city both sides claim as their capital. Hatem Abdel Khader, a senior Palestinian politician, saw the decision as an indication Israel would permit East Jerusalem residents to participate in the voting, a key Palestinian demand. "They informed me that there is a political decision to allow us as candidates in the upcoming election...

JERUSALEM — Israeli bulldozers destroyed six buildings in contested East Jerusalem yesterday, resuming the demolition of Palestinian property after a halt aimed at encouraging peace talks. Jerusalem house demolitions are a volatile issue because of conflicting Israeli and Palestinian claims to the city’s eastern sector. Israel sees it as part of its capital city, while Palestinians want it for their future capital. The municipality contended none of the structures razed was a home and that all had been illegally built and were not populated.

JERUSALEM - Israel granted the go-ahead yesterday for construction of 1,100 new Jewish housing units in East Jerusalem, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ruled out any freeze in settlement construction, raising already heightened tensions after last week's Palestinian move to seek UN membership. Israel's Interior Ministry said the homes would be built in Gilo, a sprawling Jewish enclave in southeast Jerusalem. It said construction could begin after a mandatory 60-day period for public comment, a process that spokesman Roi Lachmanovich called a formality.

JERUSALEM — Palestinians criticized an Israeli decision to push forward with plans for 625 new homes in East Jerusalem, saying the project shows Israel has chosen “settlements and not peace.’’ Israel’s Interior Ministry confirmed that the project in Pisgat Zeev won approval from a district planning committee last month. Further approvals are required; construction would not begin for two years. Palestinians have refused to resume peace negotiations without a full construction freeze for the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which they want for...

JERUSALEM — Israel’s defense minister yesterday criticized a plan to raze 22 Palestinian homes to make room for an Israeli tourist center in disputed East Jerusalem after the United States expressed concern that the project could incite violence. A Jerusalem municipal body approved the plan on Monday for shops, restaurants, art galleries, and a large community center on the site next to the walled Old City. In March, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pressured Jerusalem’s mayor to delay it, apparently to fend off US criticism.

BEIRUT - Joseph Panossian, a longtime Middle East correspondent for the Associated Press who covered transformative events from the Lebanese civil war to the US invasion of Iraq, has died, his family said Wednesday. He was 74. Mr. Panossian, who was undergoing chemotherapy for lung cancer, died March 13 in Armenia, where he had been living for the past three years, said his wife, Annie. He was described by colleagues as always ready with a joke to defuse stressful and often dangerous news events.

JERUSALEM - Israel gave preliminary approval yesterday to a plan to build 600 new homes in a settlement deep inside the West Bank, a move that drew rebukes from the United Nations and Palestinians and threatened to raise tensions with the United States as the prime minister prepares to head to the White House. Israeli officials tried to play down yesterday's decision, saying that construction was years away at best. But the timing of the move may further hinder already troubled Mideast peace efforts.

King Abdullah II on Tuesday blamed Israel for deadlocked Mideast peacemaking in a meeting with U.S. Jewish leaders, the official Petra News Agency said. But the king's guests offered a more optimistic version of events, saying Abdullah had also been complimentary of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's position in recent peace talks. Jordan last month played host to talks that have subsequently been broken off. Palestinian and Israeli negotiators have blamed the other for the cut-off.

JERUSALEM - Vandals attacked a monastery in Jerusalem and a prominent school with a mixed Jewish-Arab student body yesterday, and police said they suspected Jewish extremists were behind the violence. "Death to Christians" and other Hebrew-language graffiti were scrawled on the Greek Orthodox monastery in Jerusalem, while "Death to Arabs" was sprayed across a wall outside the bilingual "Hand in Hand" school in another part of the city. Israeli police said they were investigating both incidents.

RAMALLAH, West Bank - Israel is proposing to essentially turn its West Bank separation barrier into the border with a future state of Palestine, two Palestinian officials said yesterday, based on their interpretation of principles Israel presented in talks this week. The officials said Israeli envoy Yitzak Molcho told his Palestinian counterpart that Israel wants to keep East Jerusalem and consolidate Jewish settlements behind the separation barrier, which slices off close to 10 percent the West Bank.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is appealing to Israel's prime minister to immediately resume the transfer of Palestinian tax and customs revenue to the Palestinians. U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said Ban also told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a phone conversation Tuesday that Israel's new settlement building, including in East Jerusalem, undermines efforts to resume direct Palestinian-Israeli negotiations and violates international law. The U.N. chief stressed the need to de-escalate the current situation and create an environment...

JERUSALEM — Israel’s prime minister yesterday rejected US calls to halt construction in disputed East Jerusalem, clouding a new peace mission by Washington’s Mideast envoy. Benjamin Netanyahu’s comments were broadcast on Israel’s Channel 2 TV shortly after envoy George Mitchell arrived for his first visit in six weeks. Mitchell’s efforts had been on hold due to disagreements over East Jerusalem, which is claimed by both Israel and the Palestinians. “I am saying one thing.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat is condemning a plan to build more than 2,000 housing units in an east Jerusalem neighborhood. The plan allots 2,610 units for Givat Hamatos, a Jewish neighborhood between Jerusalem and Bethlehem, about two miles (five kilometers) apart. Erekat said Friday the plan "makes a mockery of … efforts to bring about a just and lasting peace. " Palestinians want the West Bank and east Jerusalem as parts of their future state. They say they won't resume peace talks until construction there is halted.