Netanyahu is heckled in U.S.; new housing plan announced

NEW ORLEANS - Hecklers interrupted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech to a prominent American Jewish group Monday, the same day his government said it would move ahead with hundreds of new housing units in disputed East Jerusalem.

The five Jewish American and Israeli protesters stood up and held banners denouncing the settlements. Sheriff's deputies escorted them out to a chorus of shouts and boos, and they were released without charges. One audience member took a protest banner left behind and ripped it with his teeth.

Netanyahu accused the protesters of joining those who believe "Israel is guilty until proven guilty."

"The greatest success of our detractors is when Jews start believing that themselves," he told the assembly. "We've seen that today."

The prime minister's visit comes at a delicate moment in Mideast peacemaking, when the United States is working hard to get Israel to slow down settlement activity so that fledgling negotiations can have a chance.

Israel's Interior Ministry sought to play down the significance of the new Jerusalem housing, saying actual construction could be years away. But the announcement cast a shadow over Netanyahu's visit, during which he is conferring with U.S. officials over how to revive peace talks.

The hecklers, members of the Young Leadership Institute of Jewish Voice for Peace, stood and shouted at different times during Netanyahu's speech to the Jewish Federations of North America.

Rae Abileah, 28, from San Francisco, shouted, "The settlements betray Jewish values!" as she was grabbed by sheriff's deputies and pulled out of the hall. She said a man sitting in front of her tried to stuff a seat cover into her mouth to silence her. Audience members pushed another protester and cursed at him after he interrupted the prime minister's speech.

In his address, Netanyahu said Palestinian leaders needed to stop "making preconditions."

Israel is eager to talk peace, he said, but it is counterproductive to "waste our time arguing about marginal issues that will not affect the peace math in any way."

That comment was most likely a reference to his contention that much of the settlement activity - including the East Jerusalem projects discussed Monday - is taking place on lands that will probably remain in Israeli hands in any final peace deal.

Palestinians contend that all Israeli building on lands they claim for a future state is unacceptable. They threaten to walk away from talks, restarted just two months ago, unless Israel agrees to renew curbs that expired in September on West Bank settlement construction.

An Israeli Interior Ministry official, Efrat Orbach, said Monday that his government was moving ahead with plans to build nearly 1,300 apartments in East Jerusalem, where Palestinians hope to place their future capital. The U.S. State Department called the announcement "deeply disappointing" and "counterproductive to our efforts to resume direct negotiations between the parties."