OLMERT CHALLENGED OVER JERUSALEM

Olmert Challenged to Declare He Won't Divide Jerusalem
By Julie Stahl - CNSNews.com Jerusalem Bureau Chief
September 26, 2007

Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) - A week after Israeli Vice Prime Minister Haim Ramon spoke publicly about a plan to divide Jerusalem between Arabs and Jews, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is being asked to state clearly that he does not intend to do so.Olmert is scheduled to meet Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas at a U.S.-sponsored conference this fall - a meeting intended to put the peace process back on track. He has expressed his willingness to withdraw from most of the West Bank as part of a deal with Abbas. Jerusalem is one of the most hotly contested issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The city, divided between Israel and Jordan from 1948 to 1967, was reunited under Israeli sovereignty as a result of the 1967 Six-Day War. But the move was never recognized by the international community.

Israel has always insisted that the city will remain its undivided, eternal capital. The Palestinians want the eastern part of the city, including the ancient Old City and Temple Mount, to be the capital of a future Palestinian state.Ramon, who is a close associate of Olmert's, said last week that Israel should allow Jerusalem's Arab neighborhoods to come under Palestinian rule as part of a peace deal with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. In return, Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem's Jewish neighborhoods would be recognized by the international community.

Israel's hold on the city will be endangered by keeping all of Jerusalem, Ramon said. This annexation threatens Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish people. It will bring about its transformation into a Palestinian capital with a Palestinian majority, Ramon said in a radio interview on Friday.Earlier, in a letter to a Jerusalem Municipal Council Member, Ramon not only proposed the separation of Jewish and Arab neighborhoods but also called for the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism, to be handed over to the Palestinian Authority, press reports said. (The Western Wall and Jewish quarter of the Old City would remain under Israeli sovereignty.)

Likud Knesset member Limor Livnat asked Olmert on Monday to publicly and clearly state that he has no intention of dividing Jerusalem and relinquishing the Temple Mount, the Jerusalem Post reported.If he does not do so, Livnat said, it would indicate that Ramon had been authorized by Olmert to speak about dividing Jerusalem. Politicians here often use close associates to float controversial ideas in the press to test reaction before making any official announcement.Olmert's spokeswoman Miri Eisin said that Olmert himself had stated that nobody can question what he thinks about Jerusalem.Ramon's ideas are his own, Eisin said. Olmert was the mayor of Jerusalem for 10 years and he is very committed to the city, she told Cybercast News Service. Four opponents of Ramon's plan -- from Olmert's own Kadima party --met on Monday to discuss ways of scuttling Ramon's plan.One of them, Ze'ev Elkin, said he would have expected Olmert to reject the plan unequivocally, but that has not happened, the Israeli internet site YNET quoted him as saying. This plan is a deviation from the party's platform.Other coalition and opposition lawmakers also rejected Ramon's plan.

The plan to divide Jerusalem between Arab and Jewish neighborhoods was first floated in 2000 as part of former U.S. President Bill Clinton's push to clinch an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal before leaving office.Although then-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak agreed to the proposal, it was met with fierce opposition by Israelis and Jews and Christians from abroad. Even American Jews, who typically back the Israeli government, took to the streets to protest the division of Jerusalem.Olmert was mayor at the time, and he called on Clinton to refrain from making creative proposals for dividing the city.While various peace proposals have raised the prospect of giving East Jerusalem to the Palestinians while keeping West Jerusalem in Israeli hands, in reality, it might not be that simple, since Arab and Jewish neighbors are intermingled in the north, east and south of the city.There are some 732,100 residents of Jerusalem, about 30 percent of whom are non-Jewish, mostly Arab.