U.S. to guarantee Israel's capital to Palestinians?

Rice pledges to 'seriously' study proposal to cede east Jerusalem neighborhoods

By Aaron Klein
WorldNetDaily
Tuesday, June 17, 2008

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.printable&pageId=67233

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice yesterday pledged to study a Palestinian proposal for the U.S. to guarantee eastern sections of Jerusalem will become part of a future Palestinian state, WND has learned.

"[Rice] was in total solidarity with us on the issue of stopping Israeli building in (eastern) Jerusalem," a senior Palestinian Authority official who met with Rice yesterday told WND.
The official said Rice promised to "seriously" look into the offering of a formal U.S. letter guaranteeing that new Israeli construction in eastern Jerusalem would be disregarded and that the areas of construction would be included in the final borders of a Palestinian state.
While Rice met with Israeli and Palestinian officials, Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolianski announced yesterday the approval of 40,000 new residential units in various Jewish neighborhoods, including about 1,300 new units in eastern Jerusalem.

Israel recaptured eastern Jerusalem, including the Temple Mount, during the 1967 Six Day War. The Palestinians have claimed eastern Jerusalem as a future capital; the area has large Arab neighborhoods, a significant Jewish population and sites holy to Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

About 231,000 Arabs live in Jerusalem, mostly in eastern neighborhoods. Many reside in illegally constructed complexes on property owned by the Jewish National Fund, a Jewish nonprofit that purchases land for the purported goal of Jewish settlement. Jerusalem has an estimated total population of 724,000.

Rice yesterday strongly lashed out against the new Israeli construction projects planned for eastern Jerusalem.

"We should be in a position of encouraging confidence, not undermining it. No party should be taking steps at this point that could prejudice the outcome of the negotiation," Rice said following meetings with Palestinian officials.

She said Israeli construction in eastern Jerusalem is having a "negative effect."
Speaking later to U.S. reporters in Jerusalem, Rice pointed to Israeli construction in the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem as a "problem."

"I think the key is to work with the Israelis and make clear to the Israelis that this is a problem," she said. "The problem is that since Annapolis, there has been a certain ... level of activity that raises questions, and they need to address that."

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's spokesman Mark Regev, though, said Israel has the right to build anywhere in its capital city.

"It is clear that the Jewish neighborhoods of Jerusalem will remain part of Israel," he said. "It is not realistic that we freeze the lives of people in Jerusalem."

As a sign of planned future Palestinian control over eastern sections of the city, Israel allowed the PA to hold an official meeting in Jerusalem to discuss dealing with expected Palestinian sovereignty over key sections of the city

WND reported last week
Dmitri Ziliani, a spokesman for the Jerusalem section of PA President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party, told WND the meeting was related to the activities and structure of Fatah's local command in eastern neighborhoods of Jerusalem.

"We were covering the best ways to improve our performance on the street and how we can be of service to the community," Ziliani said.

Ziliani said the regular PA meetings in Jerusalem are, in part, held in anticipation of a future Palestinian state encompassing all of eastern Jerusalem.

"Our political program as Fatah dictates there will be no Palestinian state if these areas – all of east Jerusalem – are not included," Ziliani told WND.

Division of Jerusalem Olmert's fault?
Population statistics – Arabs comprise the largest plurality in eastern Jerusalem – are regularly cited by Israeli officials as the key reason for an Israeli evacuation from the neighborhoods.

But WND broke the story that according to Jerusalem municipal employees, during 10 years as mayor of Jerusalem, Olmert instructed city workers not to take action against hundreds of illicit Arab building projects throughout eastern sections of Jerusalem housing over 100,000 Arabs squatting in the city illegally.

The workers and some former employees claim Olmert even instructed city officials to delete files documenting illegal Arab construction of housing units in eastern Jerusalem.

Olmert was Jerusalem mayor from 1993 to 2003. As mayor, he made repeated public statements calling Jerusalem the "eternal and undivided capital" of Israel. Jerusalem municipal employees and former workers, though, painted a starkly contrasting picture of the prime minister.

WND's own investigation last year found hundreds of acres of key properties in Jerusalem purchased by a Jewish group for the stated purpose of Jewish settlement instead were utilized for the illegal construction of dozens of Arab apartment buildings housing thousands and United Nations facilities.

The lands, purchased by the Jewish National Fund, or JNF, are under the management of the Israeli government.