B"H






The following is IMRA's translation of Sharansky letter to PM Barak detailing Israel's offer:

Minister of the Interior
Jerusalem
30 May 2000

Mr. Ehud Barak
Prime Minister and Minister of Defense
Jerusalem

Mr. Prime Minister,

In the last few days disturbing news has reached me regarding agreements, that you made or were made in your name, within the framework of the negotiations with representatives of the Palestinian Authority, in the current round of negotiations.

It pains me that you do not tend to share the developments in the negotiations with the members of the government or at least the members of the security cabinet and the heads of the parties that are coalition partners. So I am forced to learn about these developments from personal friends.

From my sources I learn the following things:

A. Jerusalem

  1. Israel is willing for Arab neighborhoods in eastern Jerusalem to be under the municipal responsibility of the Palestinian Authority.
  2. Israel relinquishes the physical separation between Jerusalem and the territories under Palestinian control and thus allows the free and unsupervised entrance of people into Jerusalem.
  3. Israel relinquishes the setting of the final status of Jerusalem within the framework of this agreement.

B. Judea and Samaria

  1. Israel retains only 5-8% of the territory of dense settlement blocs in Judea and Samaria.
  2. The Palestinian Authority demands, in return for these areas, compensation in Israeli territory within the borders of the "Green Line".
  3. Israel relinquishes the Jordan Valley and Northern Dead Sea.
  4. Israel will uproot the settlements that according to the agreement will remain within the territory of the Palestinian Authority.
  5. Israel will resettle between 40,000 and 50,000 settlers, who will be uprooted from those settlements.

C. Border and border passages

  1. Israel relinquishes the border with Jordan that runs from the north of the [Jordan] Valley until the northern Dead Sea, including the control of border passages.
  2. Israel will allow a border between the Palestinian Authority and Egypt in the south-west part of the state.

D. Refugees

  1. According to the agreement, the Palestinian Authority can bring into its borders and give citizenship to any person wishing to. This agreement opens the door for the entrance of millions of people to the territory of the Authority.
  2. In this agreement it is not established that there is no "right of return" to Israeli territory within the borders of the "Green Line" for Palestinians who claim that they or their relatives lived in the past in settlements within the borders of the "Green Line".
  3. The "right of return" will be given to refugees to within the borders of the "Green Line" within the framework of "family reunification".

From the agreement being developed a dangerous reality is being created according to which Israel relinquishes, in advance, all of its assets without insisting on the setting of the final status of Jerusalem, the refugees and the borders.

Honorable Prime Minister, just as the struggle for the independence of Israel, that reached its peak in the Six Day Way, strengthened the people of Israel and deepened the feeling of its identification with its State, so, to my sorrow, the developing agreement, instead of increasing these feelings, will challenge the standing of Israel and turn it into a state that relies on the benevolence of the nations of the world. There is no doubt that this change will effect the standing of the Jewish people in Israel and the Diaspora, weaken the people, and reduce their ability to identify with the State.

This is a dangerous process and I believe that the overwhelming majority of the Jewish people living in Zion and outside of it cannot agree to it.

In light of this, I ask for an urgent meeting of the security cabinet to consider the matter. Likewise, I ask to raise the matter at the next cabinet meeting.

Regards, Natan Sharansky

Copy:
Minister David Levy, Foreign Minister
Minister Eli Yishai, Chairman Shas Movement
Minister Yosef Sarid, Chairman Meretz Party
Minister Yitzchak Levy, Chairman NRP
Minister Amnon Lipkin Shahak, Center Party
MK Dan Merridor, Chairman Foreign and Security Committee


Added note:
...Not newsworthy enough to make the Israeli press?!
Thirty U.S. Jewish leaders signed a statement backing Israeli Interior Minister Natan Sharansky's recent public warning against Israel's making one- sided concessions to the Palestinians. The signers included two past chairmen of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, and past or present leaders of such groups as the Anti-Defamation League, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and the Zionist Organization of America.

Sharansky threatens to resign over concessions to Palestinians -- article from the Jerusalem Post


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