RAMALLAH, West Bank, 27 December 2007 — Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert are scheduled to meet in Jerusalem today in an attempt to solve the settlement crisis that has plagued negotiations since the Annapolis summit late last month. The Palestinians are upset over a tender by the Israeli Housing Ministry for the construction of 307 housing units in the southeast Jerusalem settlement of Har Homa, Jabal Abu Ghneim for Palestinians.
Israeli official sources said the Har Homa imbroglio is the result of a decision by low-ranking government bureaucrats in the Housing Ministry. They say that Olmert was not informed of the decision in advance, but on the international front, these explanations do not seem to be enlisting much support.
Moreover, the Har Homa affair exposed the differences in the perceptions that both parties adhere to. As far as Israel is concerned, the neighborhood is an integral part of unified Jerusalem, and not part of the West Bank.
For Israelis, construction at Har Homa is not subject to the same bureaucratic maze that any construction in the Palestinian territories — be it a house, shack or electricity line — must endure before it is approved.
However, the Palestinians and their supporters in the international community consider any Israeli construction east of the June 1967 border “Green Line” is an illegal settlement. They treat construction in East Jerusalem much the same as they treat construction in the settlement blocs in the West Bank.
To the Palestinians, construction in the territories is an obstacle to peace and an act that jeopardizes the negotiations and a violation of the US-backed Roadmap peace plan. According to the plan, Israel is demanded to meet its own obligations such as the evacuation of illegal settlement outposts, a total freeze on all construction in the West Bank including the “natural growth,” and allowing the Palestinians to reopen their institutions in East Jerusalem.
