Israel planning to build 1,400 homes on contested land in Jerusalem, West Bank

JERUSALEM -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had barely left Israel on Monday after her latest peacekeeping mission when Israeli officials announced plans to build 1,400 new homes on land Palestinians claim for a future state.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert vowed to keep building in east Jerusalem and the West Bank, dismissing Palestinian claims that construction on contested land is the greatest obstacle to peace.

The disclosure of the construction plans immediately after Rice's visit demonstrated the intensity of the political pressures that Olmert faces.

He continues to support construction in disputed areas, over the objections of the Palestinians and the U.S., because it allows him to keep his fragile coalition intact.

The Israeli construction plans threatened to make it even harder for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to overcome his people's skepticism that diplomacy, not violence, would win them a state.

During her visit, Rice warned Israel to halt new settlement activities that could upset progress.

"Settlement activity should stop -- expansion should stop," Rice said.

But two new construction projects were already being announced.

The city of Jerusalem said it planned to build 600 new apartments in the Pisgat Zeev neighborhood, which lies in the eastern sector of Jerusalem that Palestinians see as their future capital.

The Shas Party, a powerful partner in Olmert's coalition government, said the prime minister had promised to revive frozen plans to build 800 homes in Beitar Illit, an ultra-Orthodox settlement in the West Bank.

"There are more on the way," party spokesman Roi Lachmanovitch said.

Without Shas, Olmert would lose his parliamentary majority, so he soft-pedals attempts to make territorial concessions -- especially where Jerusalem is concerned.

Earlier in the day, Olmert pledged that Israel would build in east Jerusalem and heavily Jewish areas of the West Bank -- land Israel expects to keep in a final peace agreement.

"This is going on within the framework of negotiations, and the negotiations will continue to progress," he said.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat condemned the construction plans and appealed to the Americans to intervene. "This announcement is changing the situation on the ground for the worse," Erekat said.

East Jerusalem, captured in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed by Israel shortly afterward, is home to 180,000 Jews, who live in neighborhoods built after the war. Because of the annexation, Israel does not consider construction there to be settlement activity, but the Palestinians and the international community do, because no one has recognized Israel's annexation.

An additional 270,000 Jews live in West Bank settlements, most of them in three major blocs.

A recent poll showed that Abbas' popularity has been battered, in part by the Israeli construction. Removing restrictions on movement for Palestinians in the West Bank is one confidence-building measure that could prop him up.

On Monday, Israel took down one of the 50 West Bank roadblocks it pledged to remove during Rice's visit. Israel maintains more than 500 checkpoints and roadblocks, saying they are necessary security measures. The Palestinians say the travel restrictions are excessive and have crushed their economy.

A Palestinian who tried to stab Israeli hitchhikers near a West Bank Jewish settlement was shot and killed by one of them, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said, calling the shooting self-defense.