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SEPTEMBER 01, 02:03 EDT Mediators Give Ideas for Jerusalem By SALAH NASRAWI CAIRO, Egypt (AP) —
Israel and the Palestinians would jointly administer Jerusalem during a 5- to
10-year trial period under a plan reportedly put forth by Egyptian mediators
seeking to help broker a final peace settlement. The plan suggests the
``one city with two administrations'' idea be tried as a basis for an
agreement on the holy city. The Egyptians have presented the idea to both
sides and the United States, according to an Arab diplomat and an Egyptian
expert close to the talks who asked that their names not be used. Under the plan, Israel
would control the Western Wall, the revered site where Jews pray. Jews would
have unrestricted access to the Western Wall from two points in the city, as
they do now. The al-Aqsa mosque, which sits atop the wall, would be in
Palestinian hands. Joint
Israeli-Palestinian police squads would patrol and supervise security in
areas where the two peoples are expected to be in constant contact, the
Egyptian expert and the Arab diplomat said. They said the Egyptian
plan avoids a direct reference to the explosive issue of rival claims to
political sovereignty over Jerusalem. Instead the Egyptian mediators have
coined phrases like ``functional sovereignty'' and ``administrative
control.'' ``The creative solution
in these ideas is that the Egyptians are trying to avoid using the word
sovereignty, which was the main stumbling block in Camp David,'' the Arab
diplomat said. ``Such a solution can
give each party what it wants without delving into problematic phraseology,''
said the Egyptian expert, a veteran of Middle East peace negotiations. He
said wrangling over legal and political terminology blocked agreement at the
Camp David summit last month. The ideas, which have
not progressed to a formal proposal, fully satisfy neither the Israelis nor
the Palestinians. But they could in time be the basis for resolving their
most difficult point of disagreement. And other accords could
be struck in the meantime on less complicated issues, such as the borders of
a Palestinian state and the fate of Palestinian refugees who want to return
to land in what is now Israel. Egyptian officials have
said little publicly about their mediation, no doubt wary of being condemned
by hard-liners who want no compromise on Arab claims to Jerusalem. President Hosni Mubarak
told the French newspaper Le Figaro that Mideast peace must come ``now or
never'' and Israel needs to show willingness to make concessions. ``They have everything,
a state, an army and the territories taken in 1967. The Palestinians have
nothing,'' he was quoted as saying in the interview, published Friday. Mubarak told Le Figaro
that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat would never succumb to pressure to make
concessions on Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem. ``No Muslim would ever pardon
him,'' he said, according to Le Figaro. The Egyptian expert
said the Egyptians had persuaded Arafat to put off for at least a month plans
to declare independence on Sept. 13. That would allow more time for
negotiations. Commenting on the
Egyptian plan, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak said: ``There
are currently no concrete negotiations between us and the Palestinians, and
thus there is no point in a discussion of this type until Arafat displays the
flexibility necessary for achieving an agreement.'' Meanwhile, an official
close to Barak said Thursday that if the Palestinians do not make concessions
in the coming few weeks, the Israeli leader will ask the hard-line Likud
party to join his government. The deadline appeared
aimed at forcing Palestinian concessions on Jerusalem. Bringing the Likud
into government would chill the peace process. An adviser to Arafat,
Nabil Amr, said such threats showed that Barak had run out of ideas for the
peace talks. |
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