10 December 2007

A key ally of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert insisted Sunday that his country would hold on to all Jewish neighborhoods of Occupied Jerusalem, but it would have to relinquish Arab neighborhoods in a peace agreement with the Palestinians. The comments by Vice Premier Haim Ramon appeared aimed at defusing US criticism of an Israeli plan to expand one of its Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem, a section internationally recognized as Palestinian.

Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations are set to resume Wednesday, according to the agreement reached at last month's Mideast peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland. A senior Palestinian official charged Sunday that even before the new talks begin, Israel is already negotiating in bad faith about Jerusalem, one of the touchiest issues on the table.

Despite their official opposition, the Palestinians have indicated that they would consider

a division along the lines Ramon described.

Ramon said Har Homa, the newest Jewish neighborhood, would remain Israeli, along with the older ones, where about 180,000 Israeli settlers live in violation of numerous international laws.

Last week Israel published ads seeking bids from developers to build 307 additional housing units in Har Homa, triggering protests from the Palestinians and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who said the new apartments would not "help to build confidence" for new peace talks.

About 500,000 Jews and 230,000 Arabs live inside Jerusalem's expanded boundaries.

Ramon, who often speaks for Olmert, laid out his vision of Jerusalem in an interview with Israel Radio.

"The Jewish neighborhoods, including Har Homa, will remain under Israeli sovereignty, and the Arab neighborhoods will be the Palestinian capital, which they will call Jerusalem or whatever they want," Ramon said.

Ramon explained that if Israel does not relinquish control of heavily populated Palestinian areas, its character as a Jewish state will be undermined.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki denounced Ramon's remarks. "These statements place obstacles before any serious attempts by Palestinian negotiators on Jerusalem," he said. "They aim to create confusion and change the course of negotiations before they begin. They try to pressure Palestinians and the international parties to think of Israeli needs before they begin."

Arab League chief Amr Moussa said Sunday that the new construction plan was a "flagrant violation of the Annapolis summit and international law that considers the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, as occupied land."

Israel captured East Jerusalem, including the Old City with its holy sites, in the 1967 Mideast war, along with the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Unlike the other occupied areas, Israel fully annexed East Jerusalem, with its Arab population, and has built a strategic string of Jewish neighborhoods around the city.

Under international law, all Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank are considered illegal; and though no other country recognized the illegal annexation, Israel considers the entire city its capital, while Palestinians insist East Jerusalem is part of the West Bank.

Palestinians want to set up their state in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem. They consider the Jewish sections of East Jerusalem to be illegal settlements like those in the West Bank and insist that they all be removed. That is widely seen as an opening negotiating position.

Even if a division of the neighborhoods were agreed on, a serious sticking point would remain - the walled Old City and its hotly disputed holy site, where Al-Aqsa Mosque compound sits atop the ruins of the an ancient Jewish temple. Both the Israelis and the Palestinians demand sovereignty over the site.

The competing claims to Jerusalem have derailed past peace talks and are already complicating the new round before it starts. The sides have pledged to try to work out a final peace deal by the end of 2008. 

Fearing any compromise over land, Israeli extremists fanned out across the Occupied West Bank Sunday, setting up eight wildcat outposts to protest possible evacuations of settlements.

By sundown at least 300 demonstrators remained in the outposts, and though they were not disbanded reports claimed that Israeli security forces would disperse them by the evening.

Their action came on the 20th anniversary of the first Palestinian uprising, which eventually led to mutual recognition between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization.

Separately, Hamas political supremo Khaled Meshaal is holding talks with officials in Saudi Arabia, amid moves by the oil-rich kingdom to boost its role in securing peace across the Mideast, a source close to Meshaal said on Saturday. - Agencies