<
snip>
"Unilateral Israeli activity in east Jerusalem has increased in the four months since the Annapolis peace conference, diminishing chances for a peace settlement with the Palestinians, an Israeli watchdog group that advocates Palestinian rights in the city said Sunday.
"Instead of being used as a catalyst for a political agreement, the Annapolis summit has become a starting point for unilateral Israeli actions in east Jerusalem," the Ir Amim organization said in a report released Sunday.
The report cites the planned or approved construction of thousands of Israeli apartments in predominantly Jewish neighborhoods of east Jerusalem, the scheduled opening of a new Israeli police station in the West Bank in the coming weeks, and the destruction of illegally constructed houses belonging to 14 Palestinian families in east Jerusalem as among the major unilateral measures Israel has taken in the east of the city.
"Building thousands of Jewish housing units in east Jerusalem contradicts the very statements about compromises over Jerusalem," the report states.
"Opportunistic building to create facts on the ground cannot occur alongside serious negotiations about the future of this very land."
more