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Newsletter : 1fax0122.txt
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>JN Jan. 22, 2001, Vol. 9, No. 10
Negotiators End First Day of Talks
By Scott Bobb (VOA-Taba, Sinai)
Israeli and Palestinian representatives ended the first day of a new round of talks in the Egyptian Red Sea resort town of Taba. The two sides will meet again Monday.
Both sides have lowered expectations of what can be achieved before Israel's special prime ministerial elections are held Feb. 6. Negotiators from both sides have said they are closer to peace than ever before but can compromise no further on the issues of sovereignty for Jerusalem and the return of millions of Palestinians driven from their homes in 1948.
Prime Minister Ehud Barak believes a peace agreement would bolster his re-election bid against rival Likud candidate Ariel Sharon. The Palestinians believe if Sharon becomes prime minister, it would set back the peace process even further and aggravate the violence that has ravaged Gaza and the West Bank for the past four months.
Israel Suspends Cooperation with Factfinders
By VOA News
Israel suspended cooperation with a U.S. led fact-finding team looking into Israel Palestinian violence. An announcement by the Israeli foreign ministry in Jerusalem said the mission's role would have to be clarified with the new Bush administration.
The team is part of an international committee, headed by former Sen. George Mitchell, which is seeking to determine the causes of the latest Israeli-Palestinian violence.
The Israeli government had been angered by a visit by the mission's technical team to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem's walled Old City. The site, which Israelis call the Temple Mount, is sacred to both Muslims and Jews and is claimed by both.
Israeli Group Hits Muslim Excavations
By Ross Dunn (VOA-Jerusalem)
An Israeli conservation group has complained that Muslim authorities are carrying out excavations on a site in Jerusalem that is also holy to Jews. Work in the area is especially sensitive now that Israel and the Palestinians are trying to negotiate the future status of the shrine. The Israeli organization wants Muslim authorities to immediately halt their work on the area known to Jews as the Temple Mount.
The shrine, called the Noble Sanctuary by Arabs, was the site of Jewish holy temples in biblical times and remains the most sacred place in the Jewish world. The site in Jerusalem's walled Old City, is under the administration of the Muslim authorities. In Arabic, the site is called the Haram al-Sharif.
The compound is considered the third holiest site in Islam after Mecca and Medina, both in Saudi Arabia. The Jerusalem shrine's future is under negotiation at the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks in the Egyptian (formerly Israeli) Red Sea resort of Taba.
Palestinian officials demand full sovereignty over the area under a final peace treaty with Israel. The Israelis have hinted they might consider sharing sovereignty.
The Israeli group, the Public Commission for the Prevention of Destruction of the Temple Mount, says three tractors dug in the area Saturday and damaged floor tiling from the Second Temple period. The commission claims there is no archaeological supervision of the work.
Jerusalem Is Key Issue In Mideast Talks
By Laurie Kassman (VOA-Jerusalem)
One of the key obstacles to a final peace settlement is the future status of Jerusalem. Three weeks ago, Prime Minister Ehud Barak named a former Jerusalem city council member to suggest a plan for governing the city.
Prof. Moshe Amirav says the committee's final recommendations on Jerusalem are based on three key principles. "It has to be an open city. It has to be a city in which we will have elements of cooperation, elements of separation. And, it would be two cities - Al Quds to the east, the Arab city, and Hebrew Jerusalem in the west," said Amirav. In practical terms, the committee proposed mostly separate municipal services for 500,000 Israelis and 200,000 Palestinians living in separate neighborhoods.
But he says some services could be shared. "Why, for instance, [do] we have to separate sewage system, to have a Palestinian sewage system and an Israeli sewage system? It is really stupid. So, we can have it still together. We can have these two cities working separately but also together," suggested Amirav.
He pointed to an airport located to the north, near Ramallah, as an example. The Atarot airport could have separate exits for Israel and a future Palestinian state. Amirav says security was a top concern in their research. He says Palestinian East Jerusalem would have to be a demilitarized area.
The thorniest issue remains control over a disputed hilltop in East Jerusalem considered holy to both Muslims and Jews. The area, known as the Noble Sanctuary (Haram al-Sharif) to Muslims, is the third holiest shrine in Islam. Amirav's committee resurrects an international formula that puts the area under U.N. guardianship. He says it could be supervised by an 11-state committee, including Israel, a future Palestine state, Morocco, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council.
So far, Israel refuses to give up control of the Temple Mount. The Palestinians reject anything less than full sovereignty over the Nobel Sanctuary.
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