OCCUPIED JERUSALEM: Israeli officials approved new housing for Jews in the heart of an Arab neighborhood in Occupied Jerusalem, officials said Wednesday, infuriating Palestinians who see the growing Jewish presence in the city's war-won eastern sector as undermining their aspirations to statehood. The approval further complicates efforts to restart deadlocked negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. Palestinians deplore any expansion of the Jewish presence in Occupied East Jerusalem because they hope to establish their future capital there. The construction in Ras Al-Amud will be another link in the chain of Jewish settlements around East Jerusalem's Old City, said Ziad Hamouri, head of the Palestinian Jerusalem Center for Socio-Economic Rights. He predicted it would create a new point of friction between settlers and longtime Arab residents of East Jerusalem. “For the residents of Ras Al-Amud, this will be very bad,” Hamouri said. “They (the Jewish settlers) will expand. They attack residents, trying to create anger and anexiety and to push people to leave.” Meanwhile, Israeli troops destroyed three water wells belonging to Palestinian villagers living near a sprawling Jewish settlement outside Hebron, witnesses said. Two of the wells were located in Wadi Al-Ghrous, just east of Kiryat Arba settlement, and were used for agriculture by a family of 10, they said. The third well was used by 20 people and sited in the nearby village of Al-Beqa. All three were built without the requisite permits from Israel, they said.
