Pepe Alalo
Photo: Aner Green
Israel advances Jewish center in east Jerusalem
Member of Jerusalem city council says capital plans to build Jewish seminary in east Jerusalem Arab neighborhood.
A Jerusalem city council member said the city has advanced a plan to build a Jewish seminary in an Arab neighborhood of east Jerusalem – the section of the holy city claimed by the Palestinians for their future state.
The move threatens to set off a new crisis in US-brokered peace talks.
Pepe Alalo said a planning committee gave its approval Wednesday to build a nine-story study center in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood.
Alalo, who opposed the plan, said it still needed further approvals. But Nimr Hamad, a Palestinian official, called it "a new obstacle on the road to peace."
Alalo said the proposal had been delayed when US Secretary of State John Kerry visited the region to advance peace efforts.
The municipality had no immediate comment.
