Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat has pledged on Tuesday that more Jewish homes will be built in east Jerusalem, despite US calls for a freeze there in a bid to boost prospects for Middle East peace.
Barkat showed no sign of constraints on construction in Jerusalem despite a Haaretz newspaper report saying Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to refrain from "significant" actions in the disputed holy city.
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"The answer is no, a clear no," he told reporters when asked if Israel would heed calls by President Barak Obama's administration to stop building in east Jerusalem until at least Israeli-Palestinian peace talks are launched.
The mayor said there had only been a temporary halt to construction as Israel reeled from the shock of having its US ally publicly reprimand it for announcing last month 1,600 new homes in east Jerusalem.
"When you get two slaps in your face, first of all, you stop and you think: 'Did you do anything wrong?'" he said.
"It takes some time to recover from such an attack by such a friend like the US administration. Now I think we're past that phase right now," Barkat told reporters over dinner.
"There is no freeze," he confirmed, adding there will be more announcements of further construction.
"There will be buildings going on. You cannot stop a vibrant living city, especially not Jerusalem. And by the way, if you stop it, Jews will leave and Arabs will build illegally," he added.
"You must build for both Jews and Arabs," he said.
"Giving Palestinians any grip of east Jerusalem is putting a Trojan horse for Jews in Jerusalem," the mayor said.
Saying he was simply following a masterplan for Jerusalem, Barkat said he aimed to keep the holy city's Jewish population at 65 percent and the Palestinian population at 35 percent.
Barkat said he showed the masterplan -- which also calls for designs that help increase tourists from two million a year to 10 million a year in a decade -- to US lawmakers and government officials during his visit to Washington.
He said he planned to meet with US State Department officials on Wednesday. His visit coincides with that of Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, but is independent of it.
The United States has been pressing the two sides to return to negotiations for months, but the Palestinians have refused to do so without a complete freeze on Israeli settlement construction in the occupied West Bank, including annexed Arab east Jerusalem.
