Israeli neighborhood haunts peace talks

updated 9:57 p.m. ET Dec. 18, 2007

JERUSALEM - The Jerusalem neighborhood of Har Homa, with its white stone buildings and billboards hawking new real estate projects, now has managed to disrupt Israeli-Palestinian peace talks for the second time in a decade.

Israel's announcement this month that it plans to build 307 new homes in this east Jerusalem neighborhood, on land Palestinians want for the capital of their future state, drew international condemnation.

The plan was the first wrench thrown into peace negotiations relaunched last week after a violent seven-year hiatus.

For Har Homa residents like Eliran Nissim, the 30-year-old proprietor of a pizza parlor, nothing could be more natural than building more apartments for people like him.

"It's my country, it's the country of the Jews, and we will try to build in it 100 percent," said Nissim, who has decided to stay although he says he's come under fire twice from nearby Arab villages.

Har Homa: A lightning rod
For Palestinians, the bulldozers and tractors that are hard at work expanding Har Homa are a show of bad faith.

Building new homes for Israelis in the neighborhood violates two of Israel's obligations: to negotiate the future of the city and not to expand settlements, said Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat.

"It is either settlements or peace," Erekat said. "Jerusalem is subject to negotiations. No one should try to pre-empt that."

Services and shops are still scarce in Har Homa, giving the neighborhood a somewhat desolate feel. On a recent afternoon, young mothers pushed strollers and city buses picked up commuters along streets still being paved.

A van decorated with colorful blinking lights blared music, celebrating the arrival of a new Torah scroll at a local synagogue, and residents gathered around it, clapping.

But Har Homa is a political statement as much as it is a residential neighborhood, and has been a lightning rod for controversy even before it was built.

A decade ago, Israel's announcement of the project set off Palestinian riots, was criticized by the international community and brought on a crisis in peace talks that already were faltering.

Construction began in earnest in 2000, the same year negotiations collapsed in violence. The first residents began moving in with little fanfare two years later.

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