Biden slams Israel’s plan to build new settlements

JERUSALEM | Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. on Tuesday condemned a new Israeli plan to build hundreds of homes in disputed East Jerusalem, casting a cloud over a high-profile visit that had been aimed at repairing ties with the Jewish state and kick-starting Middle East peace talks.

Israel’s Interior Ministry said late Tuesday that it had approved construction of 1,600 new apartments, an embarrassing setback for Mr. Biden after a day of warm meetings with top Israeli officials.

Mr. Biden issued a harshly worded statement several hours later criticizing the Israeli move, saying its timing was especially troubling by coming on the eve of a new round of U.S.-mediated peace talks.

“The substance and timing of the announcement, particularly with the launching of proximity talks, is precisely the kind of step that undermines the trust we need right now,” Mr. Biden said.

“We must build an atmosphere to support negotiations, not complicate them,” he added, warning that “unilateral action taken by either party cannot prejudge the outcome of negotiations.”

Relations between Israel and the Obama administration have been chilly precisely because of the settlement issue, and one of Mr. Biden’s main goals had been to try to patch up ties. Mr. Biden is the highest-level member of the Obama administration to visit Israel.

The U.S., like the Palestinians and the rest of the international community, believes that Israeli settlements built on lands claimed by the Palestinians, including East Jerusalem, undermine peace prospects. President Obama has been more outspoken on the issue than his predecessors.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rebuffed calls from the White House to halt all settlement activity, agreeing only to a limited freeze that does not include East Jerusalem.

Israel captured the areas in the 1967 Mideast war and subsequently annexed East Jerusalem. Israel considers its East Jerusalem neighborhoods to be part of its undivided capital, but the annexation has never been internationally recognized and the neighborhoods are widely seen as settlements.

Interior Ministry spokeswoman Efrat Orbach said the new homes would be built in Ramat Shlomo, an existing neighborhood for ultra-Orthodox Jews. She noted that there is a 60-day appeals period, indicating that the decision could yet be changed.

But Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said the move soured the negotiating climate. The two sides agreed this week to begin indirect negotiations under the mediation of U.S. envoy George Mitchell. Peace efforts have been stalled for 14 months, in large part because of Palestinian anger over settlement activity.

“With such an announcement, how can you build trust? This is destroying our efforts to work with Mr. Mitchell,” Mr. Erekat said.

The Israeli announcement may have been the result of internal politics. A spokesman for Mr. Netanyahu said he was caught off guard by the announcement, raising the possibility that the Interior Ministry — run by a hard-line religious party — had not coordinated the news with the Israeli leader or had even tried to embarrass him.

Interior Minister Eli Yishai’s office issued a statement saying Tuesday’s decision was a procedural step in a long process. “The timing … has no connection to the U.S. vice president’s visit to Israel,” it said.

Mr. Biden had spent the day trying to calm Israeli concerns that Mr. Obama has been less friendly to the country than past U.S. leaders.

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