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An election campaign poster of Israel's Labor party leader Amir Peretz. (AP)
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| By Associated Press January 22, 2006 |
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In its new campaign platform, the center-left Labor Party supports giving up Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem in a final deal with the Palestinians, a Labor lawmaker said Friday.
The platform, to be officially presented Sunday, will state that Labor backs a "united Jerusalem consisting of its Jewish neighborhoods," lawmaker Yuli Tamir told The Associated Press. "This is a statement that we are willing to give up the Muslim neighborhoods of Jerusalem in order to strengthen the Jewish majority."
The new platform marked the first time that a mainstream Israeli party said as part of a campaign that it would be willing to give up parts of Jerusalem.
Israel's declared policy has long been that a united Jerusalem will be its eternal capital. But Palestinians want to establish their future capital in east Jerusalem, captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast War and annexed into its capital. The issue has been one of the main stumbling blocks to a peace deal.
Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian peace negotiator, welcomed the new Labor Party position, saying it was a reflection of the changing positions among both Israelis and Palestinians.
"That's a step in the right direction, that means that we are heading to a two-state solution," Erekat said. "Irrespective of the difficulties and the pains of Palestinians and Israelis, now I think we are moving forward."
In 1999, then-President Bill Clinton failed to clinch an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal, despite intense personal mediation, largely due to disagreements over the fate of Jerusalem.
However, in the years since, and during five years of bloody fighting, many Israelis have come to realize that in order to preserve the Jewish areas of Jerusalem they will have to rescind their hold on the Arab areas of the city, experts said.
The Labor Party, newly headed by Amir Peretz, an ex-union leader, is lagging in opinion polls which predict an easy victory for the centrist Kadima party in a March 28 ballot.
Analysts have said Peretz would have to make a dramatic announcement to differentiate between Labor and Kadima. But Tamir said Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, head of Kadima, has hinted he would give up areas of Jerusalem. She said the main differences between Labor and Kadima would be on socio-economic issues.
"There aren't big changes here. This is part of the Clinton plan," Tamir said.
The Jerusalem municipality today covers a much larger area than the city every constituted, said David Kimche, an expert on Jerusalem. There are areas that even the municipality doesn't visit, and are part of the city in name only, he added.
"There's been a tremendous amount of hypocrisy regarding a "united Jerusalem" because Jerusalem is not united. Israelis don't go to visit the Arab areas of Jerusalem," Kimche said. "He's (Peretz) saying what the majority of Israelis are thinking, which is: 'Why should we continue controlling those areas when we don't even visit them or have anything to do with them?"
Olmert has hinted that there is no logic in Israel holding onto the Arab areas of Jerusalem, but has stopped short of saying he would relinquish those neighborhoods, Kimche said.
"In the long run, the electorate appreciates people being honest," Kimche said. "People will understand that this is something that has to be done, should be done and it is for the good of everyone that it is being done."
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