Al-Qods, 2008 July 1, Alalam

The Israeli occupying regime has announced a new construction plan for setting up of 10,000 new houses in the occupied lands of Al-Qods, a move which can deal a further blow to the so-called peace talks with the Palestinians.

Khalil al-Tufekchi, head of the Maps Bureau of the East Al-Qods Organization, told Alalam on Monday that the Israeli regime plans to construct new houses in Wadi al-Helwah and the Prophets Shrines neighborhoods in an old section of Al-Quds, known as "the Sacred Pond".

Little progress has been made between Israelis and Palestinians since the US-sponsored peace talks in Annapolis, Maryland, with the thorny settlements issue one of the major bones of contention.

East al-Qods was occupied by the Israeli occupying regime in 1967 and later annexed in a move never recognized by the international community.

Palestinian Arabs, whose population in Al-Qods stand at 30,000, have been the target of "de-Arabization" and "de-Islamicization" plans by the occupying regime aimed at maintaining the demographic dominance of the region, Tufekchi said.