Israel razes Palestinian house in East Jerusalem

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel demolished a Palestinian house in Arab East Jerusalem on Wednesday, a day after U.S. President Barack Obama called on Israeli and Palestinian leaders to take measures to promote peacemaking.

Ammar Hudeidoun, 35, said Israeli bulldozers flattened his home in the Jabal Mukaber neighbourhood after Israel's Jerusalem municipality said he did not have building permits. Palestinians say such authorisation is almost impossible to obtain.

A Jerusalem municipality spokeswoman declined comment.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last month called Israel's demolition practices in East Jerusalem "unhelpful" to the Obama administration's efforts to shore up peace talks.

Obama said on Tuesday he hoped to see "gestures of good-faith from all sides" over the next several months.

But Obama's Middle East strategy has been complicated by the emergence of a coalition led by rightist Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who since coming to power last month has avoided endorsing the creation of a Palestinian state.

Palestinians accuse Israel of trying to drive them out of East Jerusalem, captured in a 1967 war, to make room for Jewish families.

Israel considers all of Jerusalem its "united and eternal" capital, a claim that does not have international recognition. The Palestinian Authority wants Jerusalem to be the capital of a Palestinian state.

Israel demolished two Palestinian houses in East Jerusalem on March 2 and Israeli authorities have announced plans to build a public park in the area that could entail the eviction of dozens of Palestinian families.

(Reporting by Sinan Abu Mayzer; Writing by Joseph Nasr)