JERUSALEM, Nov 17, 2009 (AFP) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has declined a US request to freeze a project to build dozens of housing units in an east Jerusalem settlement, army radio reported on Tuesday.
US Middle East envoy George Mitchell had recently asked the hawkish premier to halt the project in Gilo, saying it risks raising tensions with Palestinians amid floundering efforts by Washington to restart peace negotiations, it said.
But Netanyahu refused, saying that the project did not require government approval and that Gilo was "an integral part of Jerusalem," it said.
Asked to comment on the report, a senior Israeli official would say only that Netanyahu "is ready to show the maximum restraint when it comes to construction in Judeaea and Samaria (West Bank) to help restart (peace) negotiations, but this policy does not apply in Jerusalem, our capital."
No comment was immediately available from the US side.
Gilo lies in the mostly Arab east Jerusalem that Israel captured along with the West Bank from Jordan in the 1967 Six Day War and later annexed in a move not recognised by the international community.
Israel considers both halves of the Holy City its "eternal, indivisible" capital and does not view construction in the eastern part as settlements. The Palestinians want to make the eastern part of the city the capital of their promised state.
Some 180,000 Israelis live in east Jerusalem alongside nearly 270,000 Palestinians.
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Copyright AFP 2009.
