A partial view of the Adei Ad outpost settlement in the northern West Bank on July 20, 2009. US Defence Secretary Robert Gates is to hold talks in Israel next week amid growing tensions between the two allies, a senior official said. Under new US President Barack Obama, Washington has repeatedly pressed Israel to stop all settlement activity, something that hawkish Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has so far refused to do.
"Israel acts and will act in line with its national interests and in particular for anything affecting Jerusalem. Our rights in Jerusalem, including its development, cannot be challenged," Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said in a statement.
Eli Yishai, interior minister and deputy prime minister, said: "Israel is not a subsidiary of any other country in the world. The government and the state of Israel have the right to build anywhere in Israel when such projects have obtained all legal approvals."
Earlier on Tuesday, the European Union and Russia warned Israel not to violate Middle East peace plans by expanding settlements in east Jerusalem.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy also repeated "the need for a complete freeze" of settlement activity after talks with Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak, while Israel's ambassador to Paris was summoned by the foreign ministry.
The warnings come after it emerged that planning authorities had given the green light to a project to build 20 new apartments on the site of a former hotel in the Arab sector of the Holy City.
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