Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has asserted Israel’s “right to build” in Jerusalem, amid a row with the US over plans for new homes in the city.“Jerusalem is not a settlement, it’s our capital,” the Israeli prime minister said in Washington.
But he did not mention controversial plans to build 1,600 new homes in East Jerusalem in his speech.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton earlier urged Israel to make “difficult but necessary choices” for peace.
The Palestinian Authority is furious at Israel’s insistence on building on occupied territory.
It sees it as a serious stumbling block to the resumption of talks, which have been stalled for more than a year.
Nearly 500,000 Jews live in more than 100 settlements built since Israel’s 1967 occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
They are held to be illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this.