JERUSALEM AP Contractors bidding on a Jewish housing project in traditionally Arab east Jerusalem visited the site Tuesday and police detained three protesters from the Peace Now group trying to disrupt the tour. Peace Now leader Mossi Raz struggled and yelled as police carried him into a police van. Police and soldiers also scuffled with several other Peace Now activists as they tried to approach the construction site. The Jewish neighborhood of Har Homa consisting of 6500 apartments is being built in east Jerusalem on land Israel captured from Jordan in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians hope to establish a future capital in east Jerusalem. They say Har Homa is part of an Israeli plan to cut off the Palestinian neighborhoods in Jerusalem from their hinterland in Bethlehem and the southern West Bank. White House Press Secretary Joe Lockhart has called the project ``inconsistent with the spirit'' of last month's Wye River peace agreement. On Tuesday several Israeli builders interested in being awarded contracts at Har Homa toured the site in a convoy of cars. Fifteen Peace Now activists protesting against the construction plans were barred by police from entering the site. Five members of the outlawed anti-Arab Kach group demonstrated next to Peace Now chanting ``Peace Now a knife in the back.'' Israel maintains that Jerusalem must remain under exclusive Israeli sovereignty. Prime Minister Netanyahu has promised that the first homes in Har Homa would be completed in 2000. Ground-breaking for Har Homa known in Arabic as Jabal Abu Ghneim led to Palestinian rioting last year and a 19-month stalemate in the peace negotiations. Also on Tuesday The Jerusalem Post newspaper reported that the Israeli government has approved the construction of 480 additional homes in the Jewish settlement of Kohav Yaacov in the West Bank. Housing Ministry spokesman Moshe Friedman however said that no such decision had been made. Friedman said that the construction of 230 apartments in the settlement has been under way for a year and that the ground breaking for the other 250 apartments will begin in the next few days. UR; ask-kl APW19981201.1095.txt.body.html APW19981201.1189.txt.body.html