The right-wing mayor of Jerusalem has given the green light for a new Jewish housing project in the heart of Arab East Jerusalem - a project considerably more infuriating to the Palestinians than even the Har Homah neighbourhood.
Starting to build 6,500 Jewish homes at Har Homah four months ago brought Israeli-Palestinian peace talks to a standstill, and they have yet to resume. Beginning work on the new site, at Ras al-Amud, will trigger "an explosion", Mr Faisal Husseini, the top Palestinian Authority official in Jerusalem, warned.
Approval for a Jewish development of between 70 and 150 housing units at Ras al-Amud was granted by the Jerusalem city council, headed by the Likud mayor, Mr Ehud Olmert, at a little-publicised meeting on Thursday. Aides to Mr Benjamin Netanyahu claimed yesterday that the Prime Minister, who heads the Likud party, was not informed in advance of the move, and that he strongly opposed it. Indeed, Mr Netanyahu sent a letter to the Palestinian President, Mr Yasser Arafat, pledging to ensure the decision was cancelled.
Asked about the project yesterday, Mr Arafat said in Gaza that "we will see". Mr Husseini was more explicit, predicting a major Israeli-Palestinian confrontation if the project moved ahead.
That Mr Netanyahu, whose energetic championing of the Har Homah neighbourhood has left peace efforts deadlocked, is opposing the Ras al-Amud development, underlines the extraordinary sensitivity of this particular project. Ras al-Amud, in the shadow of the Mount of Olives immediately adjacent to the Old City, is a densely-populated, entirely Palestinian district, home to about 11,000 people. Placing dozens of Jewish houses in this area, in the centre of disputed Arab East Jerusalem, is a recipe for bloody conflict. Even Mr Netanyahu's hawkish adviser, Mr David Bar-Illan, acknowledged yesterday that it could be "considered provocative".
Mr Olmert claimed yesterday that, for legal reasons, there was no prospect of the bulldozers moving into Ras al-Amud in the short term. Other reports, though, suggested that the city's approval meant building could theoretically start tomorrow and that the Jewish millionaire who owns the plots earmarked for building, an American called Mr Irving Moscowitz, was keen to get started.
Mr Moscowitz and Mr Olmert were among the key players who pushed successfully to open a new exit at an Old City archaeological tunnel last September - a move that sparked several days of gunbattles in the West Bank and Gaza in which more than 100 people, the vast majority of them Palestinians, were killed.
The Ras al-Amud dispute has arisen just as the US is reported to be preparing an initiative to restart peace efforts with the Palestinians. It also comes only days after the Knesset approved an early reading of legislation to limit the government's room for manoeuvre in peace talks with Syria - another hardline decision that Mr Netanyahu, although he voted for it, now claims he will work to overturn.
David Horovitz is managing editor of the Jerusalem Report
Condemning the Jerusalem decision yesterday, France said: "Everything which tends to increase tension, everything which does not contribute to building a climate of confidence is regrettable." - (AFP)