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The government on Friday expressed strong disapproval of the Israeli government’s plan to build homes in a disputed area of east Jerusalem and demanded the plan be suspended, calling it an “irresponsible action.”

“We firmly reiterate that the Indonesian government condemns the Israeli government’s plan and policy to construct the houses. It is absolutely against international law and many UN resolutions. More importantly, it undermines the peace talk process,” Foreign Affairs Minister Marty Natalegawa said, adding that Israel seemed unprepared to negotiate with Palestine and had launched the plan to complicate the process.

“We sharply criticize and condemn this policy. We think it is not at all helpful,” Marty said.

Jerusalem city officials are moving forward with their plan to build 900 homes in the eastern part of the city to expand a Jewish neighborhood called Gilo, in an area which the Palestinian Authority had intended as the site for the capital of its proposed state.

“We hope the international community unites in their stance and demands Israel stop constructing that residential area,” Marty said, adding that other than expressing its strong disapproval of the plan, the government could not officially protest as Indonesia did not have diplomatic relations with Israel.

The government has previously aired criticism of Israel, most recently when the Jewish state launched an attack on Palestinian territory in the Gaza strip in December.

Marty added that Indonesia would respect whatever decisions the Palestinian Authority would make.

“Our position on Palestine is crystal clear. We support their independence and we have established diplomatic relations with them and even have a Palestinian embassy here in Jakarta,” he said, adding that Indonesia would not establish formal diplomatic relations with Israel as long as the Palestine issue remained unresolved.

“We understand that as a country we have a strong influence in this matter and we will use it to responsibly push for the peace process,” Marty said.

“We give priority to the peace negotiation process and have stressed many times the importance of the change in stance by the United States,” the minister said, adding that since the start of the Obama administration the US had made strong efforts to encourage the peace talks.

He also said that cooperation between Indonesia and Palestine “had been established extensively and intensively.”

Solidarity behind Palestine was high on the agenda at the New Asian-African Strategic Partnership senior officials meeting in Jakarta in October, which focused on areas of cooperation and capacity building programs for Palestine.

A ministerial meeting of the NAASP forum in July 2008 had also agreed to establish capacity building efforts for Palestine in various fields such as economic and social development, infrastructure and governance.

“We need to closely watch now whether it will have an impact on the peace talks negotiation process if Palestine decides to take that step unilaterally,” Marty said, adding that the government would not question what the Palestinian Authority considered best for its people.