Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's offer to partially freeze settlement construction is a diversion, PLO officials told Ma'an on Wednesday.

Netanyahu's cabinet approved a plan on Wednesday to reign in settlements in the West Bank, excluding Jerusalem, for 10 months in an effort to restart stalled peace negotiations.

"What Israel is talking about is a slowdown - not a freeze," said one PLO official involved in negotiations with Israel, speculating that the Ramallah-based government would likely reject it outright.

President Mahmoud Abbas has refused peace talks until Israel halts construction on all Palestinian land, including East Jerusalem, where Israel okayed the construction of 900 settlement units earlier this month.

"Our official position has not changed," the source said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the PLO's leadership had not yet publicly rejected the deal.

The official noted that Netanyahu's definition of a settlement freeze, in which synagogues, schools, and public facilities expand unabated in the West Bank, was not even being offered in East Jerusalem.

Earlier Wednesday, the Israeli prime minister told his political-security cabinet that East Jerusalem would not be affected, reiterating his position that the occupied city is Israel's undivided, eternal capital.

"Israel wants to make a distinction between Jerusalem and the West Bank. There cannot be a distinction," the official said, adding that the PLO believes accepting such a proposal would amount to surrendering Jerusalem.

Moreover, as Israeli law considers some areas of the West Bank part of the city, Netanyahu's promise to partially freeze settlements in West Bank areas excluding Jerusalem is a fallacy, said an advisor to chief PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat, refusing to comment publicly because Erekat had not issued an official statement.

"They want allowances for building in East Talpiyot, Gilo, Ramat Eshkol ... these settlements aren't even in Jerusalem," the official said, referring to structures built by Israel on land "annexed" into Jerusalem's municipal boundaries days after the Six-Day War in 1967.

Under such terms, building in West Bank areas simply renamed Jerusalem by Israel "will not just continue but increase," the source added. "This is getting worse, not better."