British PM concerned about east Jerusalem demolitions

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Thursday that he shared Moroccan King Mohammed VI's concern about the mooted demolition of 90 Palestinian houses in sensitive East Jerusalem.

"I share your Majesty's concerns about the threat of destroying about 90 homes in this district," Mr Brown said in a message reported by Morocco's MAP news agency.

If the demolition goes ahead it could deprive more than 1,000 Palestinians of their homes and would be the largest operation destroying Palestinian property in the mainly Arab part of Jerusalem since 1967, MAP quoted Brown as saying.

King Mohammed VI, who chairs the Al Qods (Jerusalem) Committee of the Organization of the Islamic Conference has urged the United Nations, the EU presidency and the Vatican to speak out against planned demolitions that have led Israeli authorities to issue eviction notices to families living in the Al Bustan district near the Great Mosque.

Britain "strongly supports the March 11 declaration by the Czech presidency of the European Union, calling on Israeli authorities to stop the demolition of Palestinian homes in a zone as sensitive as East Jerusalem," the statement quoted by the news agency said.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon also issued a statement of support to the Moroccan king, MAP said Thursday, in which he pledged to continue to "exhort all parties to abstain from any unilateral action in this town."

Last week the Palestinian Authority accused Israel of "ethnic cleansing" after it delivered dozens of eviction orders to residents of annexed, mostly Arab east Jerusalem.

In February, Palestinian officials and residents told AFP that Israel had ordered hundreds of Palestinians to leave their homes in the area, warning their houses were illegal.

Israel, which considers the whole of Jerusalem its "eternal, undivided" capital, rarely grants building permits to Arab residents of east Jerusalem, which the Palestinians want to make the capital of their promised state.