Leader: No end to E. Jerusalem construction

JERUSALEM -- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed yesterday to continue building in east Jerusalem, despite objections from Palestinians who claim the territory as capital of their hoped-for state.

Netanyahu spoke after the European Union's foreign policy chief criticized plans to build 800 apartments and a military college on contested land, which the international community considers to be under Israeli occupation.

"We are not imposing any restrictions on construction in Jerusalem" Netanyahu told his cabinet. "It is our capital."

A top aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas promptly accused Netanyahu of deliberately destroying prospects for peace. The Israeli leader's comment "comes in the context of the continuing destruction of the peace process and the two-state solution," Nabil Abu Rdeneh said.

The fate of Jerusalem lies at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Palestinians refuse to negotiate while Israel continues to build settlements in east Jerusalem and the West Bank, areas captured by the Jewish state in 1967.

Netanyahu has rejected the notion of partitioning the city.

Meanwhile, American academic Noam Chomsky visited the Gaza Strip, where he called on Israel to end its blockade of the territory run by the Islamic militant group Hamas. Israel says it imposed the blockade to prevent Gaza militants from getting weapons. -- AP