JERUSALEM — Vice President Joe Biden strongly criticized Israel on Tuesday for approving construction of 1,600 new housing units in the eastern part of Jerusalem, a decision announced a day after Israeli leaders and the Palestinians agreed to U.S-mediated, indirect peace negotiations and while Biden himself was meeting with top officials here.
“I condemn the decision by the government of Israel to advance planning for new housing units in east Jerusalem,” Biden said in a statement released while he was having dinner with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his residence. “The substance and timing of the announcement, particularly with the launching of proximity talks, is precisely the kind of step that undermines the trust we need right now and runs counter to the constructive discussions that I’ve had here in Israel.”
The future of Jerusalem is a core dispute in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, whose resolution has eluded U.S. peace negotiators for decades.
U.S. mediator George Mitchell has been exploring peacemaking formulas that would punt the Jerusalem question to later in the negotiations and begin, instead, with talks on borders for a future Palestinian state and security arrangements.
Still, as of Tuesday the precise scope and structure of the “proximity” talks between Israel and the Palestinians had not been agreed to, making the timing of the Israeli decision embarrassing for Biden and perilous for the new peace effort as well.
Israel captured the eastern part of Jerusalem in 1967 and subsequently annexed it, a move not recognized by the international community. The Palestinians are banking on having east Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state.
A spokesman for Eli Yishai, the Interior Minister, said that the plan approved by the Jerusalem District Planning Committee has been in the works for more than three years.
The decision may have blindsided Netanyahu as well.
“This is a procedural stage in the framework of a long process that will yet continue for some time,” the spokesman said in a statement.
Biden’s four-day visit is to include a speech Thursday in Tel Aviv, where he also will try to court the Israeli public.
Some of that public resents the fact that President Barack Obama has visited Egypt, Turkey and Saudi Arabia in the past year — but not Israel.
