Perilous
Times
East Jerusalem hotel demolished by Israel, 'damaging chance
of peace'
Palestinian officials on Sunday slammed Israel's demolition of an
east Jerusalem hotel to make way for settler homes, accusing the
Jewish state of destroying any chance of peace.
East Jerusalem hotel demolished by Israel, 'damaging chance of
peace'
On Sunday morning, three bulldozers worked to bring down part of
the dilapidated Hotel Shepherd
5:52PM GMT 09 Jan 2011
The Telegraph UK
The Palestinians reacted furiously to the demolition of part of
the Hotel Shepherd, which sits on a piece of land in occupied east
Jerusalem where developers plan to build a complex of 20 luxury
apartments for Jewish settlers.
"By doing this, Israel has destroyed all the US efforts and ended
any possibility of a return to negotiations," Nabil Abu Rudeina, a
spokesman for Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, said in a
statement.
"Israel has no right to build in any part of east Jerusalem, or
any part of the Palestinian land occupied in 1967," Abu Rudeina
said, calling on the United States to "stop Israeli tampering".
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat accused Israel of trying
to supplant east Jerusalem's Palestinian residents.
"The state of Israel is demolishing one Palestinian property after
another in an effort to cleanse Jerusalem of its Palestinian
inhabitants, heritage and history," he said.
"Such actions are unlawful and undermine the two-state solution
and the negotiations process."
US-brokered peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians have
been on hold since late September, when an Israeli freeze on the
construction of Jewish settlements expired.
Mr Abbas has insisted he will not hold peace talks while Israel
continues to build on land which the Palestinians want for their
future state.
Israel said on Saturday that its chief peace negotiator, Yitzhak
Molcho, would travel to Washington next week to seek to advance
peace efforts and that a Palestinian delegate would do the same.
The Palestinians have said they will not hold any talks with
Israel without a new settlement freeze.
On Sunday morning, three bulldozers worked to bring down part of
the dilapidated hotel, which was once home to Jerusalem's Muslim
leader, Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini, infamous for his ties to Nazi
leader Adolf Hitler.