JERUSALEM – Bulldozers demolished a hotel in an Arab east Jerusalem neighborhood Sunday to make way for a new Israeli enclave, moving ahead with a plan that has angered the Palestinians and the U.S. The Shepherd Hotel, purchased by a Jewish American millionaire in 1985, is to be replaced by 20 apartments for Israelis. Workmen and earth-moving equipment were knocking down the structure in the neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, a frequent flashpoint of protests over Israeli policies. Peace talks are currently stuck over Israeli construction in east Jerusalem, which the Palestinians claim as their future capital. The Palestinians say they will not renew talks without an Israeli settlement freeze that includes the area, which was captured along with the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war. Israeli and Palestinian envoys are heading to Washington this week in an attempt to move talks forward, but the Palestinians say the envoys will not talk directly to each other. Mark Regev, an Israeli government spokesman, refused to discuss the Shepherd Hotel project but called on the Palestinians to return to talks. Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat condemned the project. "As long as this government continues with settlement and acts like the demolition of the Shepherd Hotel there will be no negotiations," Erekat said. The Shepherd Hotel project is funded by Jewish American millionaire Irving Moskowitz, a longtime patron of Jewish settlers. The people behind the project "want to settle here and make the situation in Jerusalem even more problematic than it is now," said Mossi Raz, an Israeli peace activist and former lawmaker, at the demolition site. In recent years, settler groups have been moving more Israeli families into Palestinian neighborhoods in east Jerusalem, attempting to ensure the city will not be divided in a future peace deal. Several thousand settlers now live in Arab neighborhoods of the city under heavy guard. That presence has led to tensions, and unrest in those neighborhoods has recently been on the rise. Sheikh Jarrah is the scene of a weekly protest against the evictions of Palestinians to make way for settlers. Israel says it has the right to build anywhere in the city, including east Jerusalem, which it annexed in 1967 in a move that has not been internationally recognized. Officials also note the Shepherd Hotel project is private, and the property was purchased legally. Since capturing east Jerusalem, Israel has built large Jewish neighborhoods there that are now home to 200,000 people, more than a quarter of the city's population. An additional 300,000 Israelis live in the city's western sector. The 250,000 Palestinians who live in east Jerusalem consider the Jewish neighborhoods to be illegal settlements.
