12/19 03:59
Israel Ready to Make `Concessions' on Jerusalem, Minister Says
By Jonathan FerzigerJerusalem, Dec. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Israel will make
``painful concessions'' and probably give up a large degree of sovereignty
over Jerusalem holy sites if Middle East peace talks lead to a breakthrough,
an Israeli cabinet member told Israel Radio. As Israeli and Palestinian
negotiating teams prepared for talks today with U.S. mediators in Washington,
Yuli Tamir, the minister for immigrant absorption, said Prime Minister Ehud
Barak is ready to confront the knotty Jerusalem issue. Disputes over control
of the city and its holy sites sacred to both Muslims and Jews, wrecked
Israeli-Palestinian peace talks in September and led to 12 weeks of fighting
that have left more than 340 dead, most of them Palestinians. ``We are
approaching a historic moment of compromise on Jerusalem, and we must make
painful concessions, renouncing in one way or another our sovereignty over
the Temple Mount if necessary,'' Tamir said!
in the radio interview. Among the
most explosive issues is the hilltop plaza in Jerusalem's Old City that
Muslims call the Haram al-Sharif, the third-holiest site in Islam, and Jews
refer to as the Temple Mount, Judaism's most sacred site. Israel captured
east Jerusalem, which contains the walled Old City, in the 1967 Middle East
War. Israel has said the entire city of Jerusalem will remain its capital,
while the Palestinians want to make the eastern section of the city the
capital of a future independent state. (Israel Radio, 12/19)
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