Palestinian government: no comment on Israeli reports on concessions in Jerusalem
Palestine-Israel, Politics, 12/2/1999

Senior Palestinian sources refused to comment on Israeli reports of Palestinian willingness to leave occupied Jerusalem open for Israel even after a Palestinian state is declared with the eastern part of the city as its capital. "There were ideas that we raised over the past few meetings with the Israelis but none of them can be characterized as our final stand on the issue," said a Palestinian government source close to the final status negotiations with Israel. He said that a number of ideas published in the Hebrew press on Thursday were only discussed on the basis of non-paper and could in no means considered as the official stand of the Palestinian government.

"We have made it very clear to Israel that any settlement without occupied Jerusalem becoming the capital of the Palestinian state is totally unacceptable," the official said requesting anonymity "simply to avoid having talks with Israel conducted through the media."

According to reports in the Hebrew daily Yediot Ahronot on Thursday, the Palestinians are willing to leave their capital in East Jerusalem open to Israel, without any limitations. The paper said that this position appeared in the draft copy of the framework agreement submitted by the Palestinians.

A limited forum that convened at the prime minister's office had discussed the Palestinian draft, which is seven pages long. The meeting was attended by Foreign Minister David Levy, General Security Services head Ami Ayalon, negotiating team chief Oded Eran, and a representative from the Chief of Staff.

The introduction to the draft framework agreement, as proposed by the Palestinians, stipulates that the final status arrangement between the two parties is to be based on UN Security Council resolution 242. This means that Israel will have to withdraw to the June 4, 1967 borders.

The document addresses each one of the final status arrangement issues, including the issues of Jerusalem, settlements, refugees, water, sovereignty and economic independence. Follows are the main points of the draft paper:

Refugees: The Palestinians demand that Israel recognize the right of return of refugees who were uprooted in 1948. The document that they submitted does not include an explicit demand that this right be actualized at this stage.

Settlements: The Palestinians demand that Israel dismantle all of the settlements that were built after 1967.

Water: The PNA plans to file a documented legal suit against Israel, demanding compensation of hundreds of millions of dollars damages caused by Israel during its use of West Bank water sources and for the damage that it caused to the quality of the underground water resources in the past three decades.

Economic Independence: The Palestinians demand the implementation of all the outward signs of monetary independence such as independent currency and a central bank. They also demand the right to declare the territories within the PNA areas as a "free trade zone."

Barak, said the paper, told the meeting after the discussion that he was willing to be forthcoming with the Palestinians and to show flexibility vis-a-vis the character of the Palestinian entity. Barak, the paper explained, is willing to agree to the establishment of a independent Palestinian state in the final status agreement, to be reached no later than September 2000.

Barak also said that he would be willing to be forthcoming with the Palestinians and would provide them with territorial contiguity in the West Bank, the paper said, noting that such an acceptance would affect so-called access roads that serve small and dispersed settlements. Barak is also willing to meet the Palestinian demand for economic independence and to increase the number of Palestinians who work in Israel but he rejected outright the Palestinian demand to be paid monetary compensation for the use Israel made of the West Bank's water resources. Barak also rejected the Palestinian demand that all of the settlements be dismantled. On the question of refugees, Barak reiterated his position that Israel would not permit the return of 1948 refugees to Israeli territory. However, according to Barak, Israel will show more flexibility when dealing with the reunification of families that have been refugees since 1967.

The discussions over the framework agreement were accelerated this week in anticipation of the arrival of U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in the region next week. The Americans, in messages conveyed to both President Yasser Arafat and Barak, have stressed that they expected tangible progress in the preparation of the framework agreement and that if such progress were not made then the summit meeting with President Clinton, scheduled for the beginning of February, would be canceled.

There are at least three tracks for talks between the Palestinians and Israel. The first one is public and conducted between the entire negotiating teams, headed by Yasser Abed Rabbo and Oded Eran. The second is informal and is held directly between Abed Rabbo and Eran. The third is semisecret between Arafat and Barak through former GSS officer Yossi Ginosar. A fourth track, not official though, is between PLO Executive Committee member Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) and foreign minister David Levy.

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