CAIRO: Egypt s foreign minister and a visiting Palestinian official on Monday said Israel s construction plans for a contested east Jerusalem neighborhood and West Bank endanger the Mideast peace process. The building has enraged Palestinians who say such construction undermines nascent peace talks in the wake of last month s Israeli-Palestinian summit in Annapolis, Maryland. A statement from the office of Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said he has been having "urgent contacts with US officials on the issue. Senior Palestinian official Azzam Al-Ahmed also voiced concerns about the building during a meeting here Monday with Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa. Israel s plans to expand construction in the Har Homa neighborhood of Jerusalem "cast thick shadows of suspicion on the seriousness of Israel s declared position to positively negotiate a just settlement with the Palestinians, Aboul Gheit s statement said. The foreign minister has sought to explain to the United States the "dangers that result from Israel s continued disregard of the world opposition to its settlement policy. "Settlement building and peace contradict each other and will never meet, the statement said. "Israel has to make its choice for peace or expansion. Aboul Gheit s statement came as Israeli and Palestinian negotiators were to meet later Monday to press ahead with peace talks set in motion at the US-hosted conference last month. The talks on a final peace deal, which the sides hope to complete by January 2009, already have hit a snag over Palestinian demands that Israel stop building in areas the Palestinians want for their future state. Israel insists it can build in all of Jerusalem, to accommodate what it calls "natural growth in major West Bank settlements. Azzam Al-Ahmed, deputy prime minister and leader of Fatah lawmakers in the Palestinian parliament, discussed the Mideast peace talks and Israel s settlement building with Moussa in Cairo. "This policy will cause the peace process to collapse ... nothing will come out of today s Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, al-Ahmed told reporters after the meeting. "We hope Israel revokes its expansionist policy, so that it won t be responsible for the stumbling of the whole peace process. Built on a hilltop known to Palestinians as Jebel Abu Ghneim, Har Homa is part of a network of Jewish neighborhoods in Jerusalem that ring Palestinian areas. Palestinians charge the Israeli goal is to cut Arab neighborhoods off from each other and stand physically in the way of making east Jerusalem the capital of a Palestinian state.
