US cannot challenge Jewish control over East Jerusalem: Israel

In a rebuff to Barack Obama administration, Israel's hawkish prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu today rejected the US demand for halting constructions in East Jerusalem, saying the Jewish sovereignty over the Holy City "cannot be challenged".

Dismissing US demands to halt all construction projects there, prime minister Netanyahu said, "I read the newspaper headlines about the construction of a neighbourhood in Jerusalem and I would like to re-emphasise that the united Jerusalem is the capital of the Jewish people and of the State of Israel."

"Our sovereignty over it cannot be challenged. This means, inter alia, that residents of Jerusalem may purchase apartments in all parts of the city", Netanyahu said at a weekly cabinet meeting today.

The Israeli premier's comments came hours after the US State Department told Israeli envoy, Michael Oren, that Israel must halt a construction project in East Jerusalem.

Netanyahu told his cabinet that all citizens are allowed to purchase property in any part of the city.

"This is the policy of an open city, an undivided city that has no separation according to religion or national affiliation. We cannot accept the idea that Jews will not have the right to live and purchase in all parts of Jerusalem", Netanyahu facing stiff opposition from his right-wing coalition partners on the issue of halting settlement activities emphasised. 

"Imagine what would happen if someone were to suggest Jews could not live or purchase [property] in certain neighbourhoods in London, New York, Paris or Rome. There would certainly be a major international outcry", he said.

"Likewise, we cannot accept such a ruling on East Jerusalem while Arabs have the freedom to rent or buy apartments in the Jewish dominated Western Jerusalem and the government doesn't interfere," Netanyahu told the ministers.

The right-wing Israeli leader, who showed some flexibility on the creation of an independent demilitarised Palestinian state in a national policy speech last month, said that he made this stance clear to US president Barack Obama declaring that the issue of construction in Jerusalem could not be linked to the discussion on settlements.

Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat denounced the Israeli response saying Netanyahu understands that a peace agreement is impossible unless East Jerusalem is deemed the Palestinian capital.

"Peace and settlement activity are diverging paths that can never meet", Erekat, a close confidante to Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, said.

The State Department summoned Oren over the weekend to advise him that the project developed by American millionaire Irving Moskowitz in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah should not go ahead, Israel Radio and Army Radio reported.