RAMALLAH – Israel is destroying any chance of a return to peace talks by carrying out demolitions in annexed east Jerusalem, a spokesman for Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said Sunday.
“By doing this, Israel has destroyed all the US efforts and ended any possibility of a return to negotiations,” Nabil Abu Rudeina said in a statement after Israeli forces demolished part of a former hotel in east Jerusalem. The Hotel Shepherd is being partially demolished to make way for 20 new homes for Jewish settlers in the east Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah.
“Israel has no right to build in any part of east Jerusalem, or any part of the Palestinian land occupied in 1967,” Abu Rudeina said, calling on the United States to “stop Israeli tampering.”On Sunday morning, three bulldozers tore down part of the dilapidated hotel, which was once the home to Jerusalem’s mufti religious leader, Haj Amin al-Husseini, who became infamous for his ties to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.
The Jeddah-based Organisation of the Islamic Conference blasted the demolition as a “flagrant violation of international law.” Though east Jerusalem is largely Palestinian, an increasing number of hardline Israeli settlers have moved into the area’s neighbourhoods, sparking fights with Arab residents. An estimated 2,000 Jewish settlers live in Palestinian neighbourhoods in annexed east Jerusalem, although the exact number of properties they own is unclear.
Talks between Israel and the Palestinians have been on hold since the end of September, when an Israeli freeze on the construction of Jewish settlements expired.
