RAMALLAH, January 9, 2011 (WAFA) - Saeb Erekat, chief Palestinian negotiator, Sunday denounced in a statement Israeli demolition of Shepherd Hotel in East Jerusalem, accusing Israel of planning to empty the city of its Palestinian inhabitants.

Israeli bulldozers began work early Sunday on razing a section of the historic hotel, located in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem, in order to make room for building a new Jewish settlement.

“The State of Israel is demolishing one Palestinian property after another in an effort to cleanse Jerusalem of its Palestinian inhabitants, heritage and history,” said Erekat.

“East Jerusalem and the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in particular, have been targeted by Israel in a campaign to forcibly remove Palestinians and supplant them with Jewish settlers. Such actions are unlawful and undermine the two-state solution and the negotiations process,” he said.

Israel, added Erekat, “continues to change the landscape of Jerusalem aiming to change its status and turn it into an exclusive Jewish city. This process of cleansing and colonization must be stopped to change the dark reality of Israeli occupation into a free and sovereign Palestinian State with East Jerusalem as its capital.”

Erekat said Israel’s settlement plans in Sheikh Jarrah, Silwan, Mount of Olives, Ras Al Amoud, Al-Issawiya and other neighborhoods in East Jerusalem, “aim to create a ring of settlements severing the Old City from the rest of occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank.”

He said: “What is happening today is part of the political program of the Israeli government to preempt any solution on Jerusalem. While Netanyahu continues his public relations campaign regarding the peace process, on the ground he is rapidly moving to prevent the establishment of a sovereign Palestinian state.”

Y.Y.