A NEW Israeli decision to build more than a hundred Jewish homes in an Arab neighbourhood of East Jerusalem is likely to provoke another round of Israeli-Palestinian confrontation, a senior Palestinian official indicated yesterday.
A Jerusalem area planning council yesterday approved the construction of 132 Jewish homes in the Ras al-Amud neighbourhood, with some of the building reportedly to be financed by Mr Irving Moskowitz - an American Jewish millionaire and staunch supporter of the right-wing Israeli government, whose backing helped finance the Jerusalem tunnel project that caused the last major fighting here in September.
Mr Ahmed Queria, the Speaker of Mr Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Legislative Council - who is better known as Abu Ala - described the Israeli decision as "an attempt to kill the peace process" and threatened a Palestinian reaction that would "hurt" peace efforts.
Mr Queria has been at the forefront of Palestinian criticism of the deadlocked peace process, and warned in an interview last week that if Israel did not soon honour its commitments the Palestinians would widen their demands to encompass such Israeli cities as Haifa, Jaffa and Safed.
With his government about to mark six months in office, the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, has yet to implement a single clause of the peace accords he inherited from the previous Labour government. For the umpteenth time yesterday, Mr Netanyahu reiterated his readiness to complete a deal on the Israeli troop withdrawal from Hebron, and charged Mr Arafat with responsibility for the stalemate.
But Palestinian officials are refusing to sign the Hebron deal until they receive a detailed timetable from Mr Netanyahu for other parts of the peace accords - including further West Bank withdrawals, the opening of a "safe passage" route between Gaza and the West Bank, and the release of Palestinian prisoners.
Mr Netanyahu has, thus far, been unwilling to put his signature to any such timetable, and still seems to be formulating a position on the terms of a final settlement with the Palestinians. During his trip to Europe last week, the prime minister told at least one European leader that he could not contemplate granting full statehood to the Palestinians, since this would inevitably be followed by a similar demand for statehood by Israel's Arab citizens in the northern Galilee area.
The stalemate is badly harming Israel's ties with other Arab states. Some have placed normalisation moves on hold. Others, like Jordan and Egypt, are trying to mediate a solution - without conspicuous results. Only the US, it would seem, can help find a way out of the deadlock but, in the aftermath of the elections, the Clinton administration is still sorting out its Middle East team and is no position to intervene just yet.
David Horovitz is managing editor of the Jerusalem Report
. The European Union and the Palestinian Authority initialled an agreement yesterday on full Palestinian partnership in the Euromed accord governing the 15-nation bloc's relations with the Mediterranean region.