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Israel sealed off the West Bank today amid tensions over Israeli plan to build new homes in East Jerusalem. Anchor Marco Werman speaks with The World’s Matthew Bell in Jerusalem.

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MARCO WERMAN:  I’m Marco Werman, this is The World.  Israel today sealed off the West Bank.  The Israelis say the move is aimed at preventing unrest by Palestinians.  Tensions are high between the two sides, especially around East Jerusalem.  Earlier this week the Israeli government announced plans to build 1,600 new homes for Jewish settlers in East Jerusalem.  The announcement upset the United States and overshadowed a visit by Vice President Joe Biden.  The World’s Matthew Bell is in Jerusalem which is a very tense place I understand right now, Matthew.  There’s been a ban on men under 50 from attending prayers at the very holy Al Aqsa Mosque.  What’s going on there?

MATTHEW BELL:  Well, for the second week in a row there were clashes between Palestinians throwing rocks and Israeli security forces there.  This is one of the holiest sites in Jerusalem.  In the past couple of weeks there have been dozens of people injured.  In a way it’s a story that’s been ongoing over the months and years that there have been clashes at this site.  Also, the Israeli government recently announced that it would take control over a couple of other sensitive sites, on in Bethlehem and one in the City of Hebron in the West Bank.

WERMAN: When the settlement announcement was made during Vice President Biden’s visit, how severe a [phonetic] cock-up did it feel there on the ground?

BELL: Well it’s interesting because everyone knows that Washington and the Israelis have sort of agreed to disagree on the issue of building in East Jerusalem, that is building houses, residences for Jewish Israelis. The issue is this, the Palestinians see East Jerusalem at the site of their future capital.  U.S. officials have all but implied that they as well want to work toward getting there, creating two states with East Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital, but the Israelis consider Jerusalem to be their unified capital.  The government of Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister, has said that they will administer and run their own national capital how they want to.  The timing of this was really what muddied the waters.  Here’s Vice President Biden coming, he’s the highest Obama official to come to Israel since President Obama was elected, he had some good news to announce.  There was supposed to be these proximity talks, these indirect talks that would finally be a glimmer of hope that the peace process was at least starting to get going in some fashion, and then this happens.  It really drew attention to one of the toughest sticking points between Washington and the Israelis.  On the one hand, Biden outright condemned the move on the 1,600 new housing units.  On the other hand, Biden also said that the U.S. and Israel are the best of friends and nothing will shake that alliance.

WERMAN: There was an agreed moratorium between the U.S. and Israel on settlement construction, and then this news on settlement construction not just in the West Bank, but in East Jerusalem as you say, a very sensitive spot for everybody, this had to have had a major frosting effect on getting Mid-East peace talks back on track.

BELL: Well the truth is Marco that the Obama administration has tried to get the talks back on track for months.  They haven’t been able to.  The settlements are a huge issue.  The Palestinians have said look, why should we sit down and talk with the Israelis when they’re building houses in the place where we’re going to have, supposedly, our future state and our future capital?  But this whole thing with the holy site here and the restrictions of access to the Al Aqsa Mosque, for example, and the building in East Jerusalem, these are just small examples of the huge issues that these two sides have to deal with when they actually do sit down.  And you get, eventually, the heads of state themselves, sit down to sign a peace agreement.  There’s a lot on the table here and really what has only happened so far, is just talking about talks that would sort of get to some of those final status issues.

WERMAN: Alright we’ll end our talk right here.  The World’s Matthew Bell in Jerusalem, thanks for speaking with us Matthew.

BELL: Alright Marco.

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