Tension Flares as Israelis Begin Housing Project

Bulldozers guarded by hundreds of heavily armed Israeli troops broke ground Tuesday for a new Jewish neighborhood in East Jerusalem, despite warnings that the action could provoke a violent Palestinian response and threaten the fragile peace process.

Soon after four yellow earthmovers began to carve a new road in the disputed hillside in southeastern Jerusalem, there were reports of scattered Palestinian protests, including scuffles between a small group of students and Israeli soldiers on an adjacent hill.

Israeli and Palestinian officials braced for the chance of serious conflict in coming days.

Palestinian leaders and diplomats here said Israel’s decision to proceed with the controversial housing project has pushed Middle East peacemaking to its lowest point since deadly gun battles broke out between Israelis and Palestinians in September. Several said they feared that the situation, perceived by both sides as a struggle for Jerusalem, could spiral out of control.

“It is a black day for the peace process,” said Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu strongly defended the decision to launch construction, telling reporters that the Jewish state has the right and the obligation to build in Jerusalem, despite the risk of violence.

“I will not sacrifice Jerusalem . . . to rescind only for a moment terrorist threats,” he said.

Netanyahu also accused Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat of giving Palestinian militants the go-ahead for attacks against Israel in response to the project, a statement flatly denied by Palestinian officials.

Intelligence reports, the Israeli leader said, indicated that “the Palestinian leadership has given the green light to the worst terrorist organizations on Earth to go ahead with . . . bus bombings and suicide attacks, the kind of mass killings that brought a halt to the peace process.”

In Washington, State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns disputed the claim. “We don’t believe it to be true,” Burns said of the Israeli leader’s statement, noting that the United States had assurances from Arafat that “he stands against violence.”

The building plans, already condemned by the international community, garnered more criticism Tuesday, from the United States and others.

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in Washington noted that President Clinton has said publicly he wished Israel had not opted for the project. Albright called on both sides to resume negotiations.

Jordan, whose king touched Israeli hearts over the weekend with a visit to the families of seven girls killed by a Jordanian soldier, also urged that construction be stopped and negotiations resumed.

Soon after the bulldozers began to cut wide swaths into the rocky hill, Arafat issued a statement, broadcast on local radio, asking Palestinians to refrain from violent confrontations. Later Tuesday, he was closeted with top aides in his Gaza headquarters.

The Palestinian leader was said to be angered and deeply depressed by Israel’s decision to start construction, which analysts said could damage his credibility with his people as an effective peacemaker.

“He feels he’s been had by his partners in the peace process,” a U.S. official said.

Netanyahu’s senior foreign policy advisor, Dore Gold, said that any disillusionment felt by Palestinians may be the fault of their own leadership, which he said has created unrealistic expectations about the peace process. “It might be that somebody sold them a bill of goods, that they were going to get a Palestinian state on the ’67 borders with half of Jerusalem,” Gold said. “I don’t think the Israeli people would support such a deal.”

Israel captured historically Arab East Jerusalem, along with the West Bank and Gaza Strip, in the 1967 Six-Day War and annexed the eastern half of the city. The Israeli government vows that the city will never again be divided. Palestinians regard East Jerusalem as the capital of their own, unrealized independent state.

Under the terms of the 1993 and 1995 interim peace accords, known as the Oslo agreements, the future of Jerusalem and other highly sensitive issues are to be left for later negotiation. Neither side showed up Monday for the scheduled resumption of those talks.

The construction plans call for 6,500 new apartments for Jews on the densely forested hill known in Hebrew as Har Homa and in Arabic as Jabal Abu Ghneim. Israel argues that the plans do not violate the Oslo accords; Palestinians say the construction, aimed at encircling East Jerusalem with Jewish housing, contradicts the spirit of the agreements.

Palestinians have warned that the decision to build could prompt an eruption of violence like the September battles in the West Bank and Gaza Strip that claimed the lives of more than 75 Israelis and Palestinians and injured more than 1,000 others. Those confrontations began after Israel opened a new door to a tourist tunnel near holy sites in Jerusalem’s Old City.

In Amman, the Jordanian capital, a leader of the militant Islamic group Hamas called for Palestinians to launch a new uprising against Israel. “The road of resistance is the only road which can affect the Israelis,” Hamas spokesman Ibrahim Ghoshe told Reuters.

As Palestinian anger over the impending construction grew in recent days, Arafat met with Hamas political leaders and released several of the group’s top military leaders from jail. The actions prompted widespread speculation here that Arafat’s disappointment over the policies of the Netanyahu government could spawn a dangerous rapprochement between Hamas and the Palestinian leadership.

On Tuesday, heavy rain and hail fell on the disputed hillside between Jerusalem and Bethlehem. Several groups of Palestinian protesters were kept from reaching the building site by Israeli soldiers.

But a few people, mostly Israeli peace activists and Israeli Arab lawmakers, slipped past checkpoints. They joined a handful of Palestinian leaders and activists who spent the night in tents nearby.

A few dozen Palestinians tried to march toward the bulldozers but were stopped by Israeli soldiers. As if to underline the futility of the effort, a lone Palestinian flag poked out from a sea of Israeli troops.

Times staff writer Marjorie Miller contributed to this report.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

One Place, Two Names

Israelis refer to the disputed hilltop as Har Homa, Hebrew for “bastion.” Palestinians call it Jabal Abu Ghneim after a Christian priest who lived in the area.

THE PROJECT

The hilltop was a subdistrict of Bethlehem under Jordanian control until 1967, when Israel captured the eastern sector of Jerusalem and annexed part of the West Bank into the city. The land was used by Palestinians from neighboring villages to graze livestock and grow wheat. A decision to launch the project was made under a Likud government in 1991, and planning continued under a subsequent Labor governments.

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THE HISTORY

Israel authorized building 6,500 housing units at the site in addition to commercial and industrial zones, public buildings, parks and schools at a total cost of $330 million. In the first phase, 2,456 apartments will be built. The government is providing infrastructure for the site, including roads and utilities.