Tag Archives: other

HIGH up in an empty, mountainous expanse east of Jerusalem is a stone patio with a pair of green metal benches and a plaque marking the cornerstone of a future Jewish community. Dedicated in 2009, the plaque promises the new city will be built ”adjacent to the united Jerusalem, which will be quickly re-established”.

But beyond the cornerstone, nothing has been erected since in this 12-square-kilometre area, known as E1, where there are more goats than people.

But Israel’s announcement on Friday that it was moving ahead with zoning and planning for the area could change all that, and many fear it could close the window on the chance for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Construction in E1, in West Bank territory that Israel captured in the 1967 war, would connect the large Jewish settlement of Ma’ale Adumim to Jerusalem, dividing the West Bank in two. The Palestinian cities of Ramallah and Bethlehem would be cut off from the capital, making the contiguous Palestinian state endorsed by the United Nations last week virtually impossible. Although Israeli officials did not call the move retaliation for the UN vote, most people here assumed the timing was not coincidental.

Advertisement

”It’s like two three-year-old children playing, and one is hitting and the other is slapping instead of sitting down,” said Alex Lash, 56, an Israeli. ”It’s a never-ending story: We are doing something, they are doing something, one movement brings the other side’s movement. There is no end for that.”

Zakaria al-Qaq, a professor of national security at al-Quds University and a resident of the East Jerusalem suburb of Silwan, said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was under pressure to act because of the Israeli elections on January 22.

”Maybe the Palestinians got something on paper and morally, but he got something on the ground,” Mr Qaq said. ”It’s a strong message to the Palestinian leadership that Netanyahu is not without cards in his hand.”

The development of E1 has long been seen as a diplomatic third rail, and several experts said they expected that Israel might once again back down from building there. But several other controversial housing projects within Jerusalem have sped forward in recent months. NEW YORK TIMES

See the article here:

E1 building on West Bank to hobble hope for two-state solution