Ha'aretz: Israel Deputy foreign minister Nawaf Mazalha 'Israel offered PA half of Old City'

Israel Deputy foreign minister Nawaf Mazalha details Barak's concessions at Camp David to Arabic newspaper

By Daniel Sobelman - Ha'aretz Correspondent and DPA Ha'aretz 22 September 2000

(IMRA: The earlier Ha'aretz version of this story identified Mazalha as a PA deputy minister)

Israel offered to repatriate 70,000 Palestinians refugees and agreed to half a million refugees returning to the West Bank, deputy foreign minister Nawaf Mazalha told the London-based Arabic language newspaper Al Hayat.

In an interview published yesterday, Mazalha said during the July Camp David talks with PA Chairman Yasser Arafat, Prime Minister Ehud Barak also agreed to giving Palestinians sovereignty over half the Old City of Jerusalem.

Mazalha said the Palestinians demand 100 percent of the West Bank, while Barak offered Arafat 90 percent of West Bank territory adding that "Israel may accept in the negotiations to raise this to 92 percent and to repatriate 150,000 refugees, for example, inside its borders, instead of 70,000."

According to the deputy minister, the 18 Arab League member states are "waiting for the a Palestinian-Israeli agreement to be signed to establish diplomatic relations with Israel.

"I know some of the countries have officially informed Israel of this - but this does not mean that today there is no trade or cooperation in scientific research and exchange of technical information between Israel and some Arab states like Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Mauritania, Oman and Qatar," (states that have some diplomatic relations with Israel).

He said that the only exceptions were Sudan, Saudi Arabia and Syria who were still "balking" at any formal ties with Israel, while Lebanon was waiting for Syrian approval on establishing relations.

The other exception is Iraq, "because Israel does not want to establish ties," said Mazalha.

On the peace talks with the Palestinians, Mazalha said: "During and after the Camp David summit, Barak dared to offer President Yasser Arafat a deal on Jerusalem that no other prime minister has ever dared to offer - half of the Old City."

Mazalha said the real dispute was over the Armenian Quarter, "which Arafat insisted would be included in areas under Palestinian sovereignty, while Barak insisted it remain under Israeli sovereignty, along with the Western Wall and the Jewish Quarter."

Mazalha said on the issue of the Temple Mount "Barak agreed the sovereignty there would be Palestinian, but there was some dispute over the area between the two mosques, the area below the Temple Mount and the tunnels underneath. The Jews claim the remains of their Temple are there."

The Israeli proposal included full Palestinian control over the neighborhoods bordering the Old City and East Jerusalem, while Israel would retain control over "the large settlements around Jerusalem, in the east and inside [Jerusalem].

From Arutz 7

BARAK ENTERTAINS MORE CONCESSIONS ON JERUSALEM Despite Ehud Barak's previous declaration that Israel had "reached the limits of its concessions," it is becoming clear that there is still further he can go - and the division of Jerusalem may in fact be coming closer to a reality. The Prime Minister has expressed a willingness to entertain international control for the Temple Mount, while granting Palestinian sovereignty to the mosques there and to two Old City quarters. The Americans will decide at the end of the week whether to officially propose the above; they may, alternatively, suggest that Jerusalem be left for future negotiations.

Prime Minister Barak held a consultation this afternoon to discuss the proposed division of Jerusalem and withdrawal from Yesha with lead negotiators Acting Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami and Atty. Gilad Sher. "Israel will not give up its connection with the Temple Mount, but does not negate the Palestinian connection with the area, either," Ben-Ami said today. Regarding the question of how such an agreement will fare in a national referendum, he said, "I assume that the public will vote for the government's final-status agreement, even if it would not accept each of the agreement's individual components."

Bar Ilan University pollster Dr. Yaakov Katz said that his findings support Ben-Ami's supposition, but added that the majority support for an agreement is conditioned upon the magic words "end of the dispute." Katz said, "I evaluate not only the answers I receive in my surveys, but also what lies behind those answers. Most of the public is aware that it is not the case that this will mark the end of the historic dispute, and that at best Israel will receive yet another interim agreement."

Yasser Arafat told a group of American-Jewish leaders in Ramallah last night that Barak erred when he raised the Jerusalem issue at Camp David. Arafat said that this caused the Moslem world to object to any Palestinian "concession" on the Temple Mount.

ISRAELI CRACKDOWN ON ILLEGAL MOUNT CONSTRUCTION Moslem Waqf officials on the Temple Mount accuse Israeli police of holding up their illegal construction there by preventing construction materials from entering the area. One official, quoted by the Palestinian news agency, says that the Israeli "tightening [of] the choke-hold on Al Aqsa mosque" has been going on for the last five days. Other Waqf officials threatened that the situation could lead to "an explosion." Rabbi Chaim Richman, of Jerusalem's Temple Institute, said today, "Although at present they are only paving the top level, the Moslems' intentions are the same, whether they are working on the top level or building a mosque underneath the surface: to totally wipe out any trace of Jewish identity and history on the Temple Mount."