Exposed: Israel is negotiating Jerusalem

PM Olmert repeatedly denied holy city discussed with Palestinians

By Aaron Klein 4/1/2008

Illegal Arab construction in Jerusalem (WND)

JERUSALEM – Israel is negotiating with the Palestinian Authority regarding “all core issues,” including the status of Jerusalem, PA President Mahmoud Abbas said yesterday.

“[Talks deal with] all the core issues without exception: Jerusalem, refugees, settlements, borders and security. We hope to achieve a settlement in 2008; there are many obstacles but we hope they will be removed. We are all pressing to reach a settlement by the target date,” Abbas said.

His statements fly in the face of recent claims by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who repeatedly has denied Jerusalem is being discussed. The ultra-Orthodox Shas party, a key member of Olmert’s coalition, has pledged to bolt the government if Jerusalem is negotiated.

Shas has denied Jerusalem is being discussed during regular weekly Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, which commenced after last November’s U.S.-sponsored Annapolis summit.

“Nobody is talking about Jerusalem. The moment Jerusalem is being discussed, Shas will leave the government – period,” Shas spokesman Roi Lachmanovitch told Israel National News.

Abbas’ statement yesterday was specifically referring to the weekly meetings between chief Palestinian negotiator Ahmed Qureia and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.

The PA leader’s comments are sure to result in increased pressure against Shas to leave the government, a move that likely would send Olmert’s government into crisis and could result in the prime minister’s downfall.

Last week, WND reported the son of the Shas spiritual leader demanded his father’s party immediately bolt the government amid rampant media reports Jerusalem is up for negotiations.

Rabbi Jacob Yosef accused the Shas party of “selling Jerusalem” for 478 million Israeli shekels, or $138 million. Yosef’s father, Rabbi Ovadye Yosef, serves as the spiritual leader of Shas, where he is also considered the party’s most important and revered figure.

Earlier this month, the Knesset’s Finance Committee approved $138 million in government funds to Shas’ educational institutions as part of the party’s coalition agreement with Olmert.

“How dare you sell out Jerusalem for 478 million shekels. Jerusalem is worth more than all monies in the world,” said Jacob Yosef, rabbi of the Givat Mordechai neighborhood in Jerusalem, addressing his father’s party.

Jacob Yosef is also a member of the Rabbinical Congress for Peace, a coalition of more than 350 Israeli rabbinic leaders and pulpit rabbis.

Yosef accused his father’s party of staying in the government until a formal announcement regarding dividing Jerusalem is made, by which time, the rabbi said, it will be too late.

“When someone brings a rope to hang your child, will you say, ‘Oh, it’s nothing, he only brought a rope?’ Or if a killer is only sharpening the knife, will you say, ‘It’s nothing, he’s only sharpening the knife?’ You will stop him right at the beginning, because by the time the knife is on the throat it will be too late. What is Shas waiting for? It must leave the government right now,” Yosef exclaimed.

Olmert’s government has hinted a number of times it will divide Jerusalem and reportedly has halted all Jewish construction permits for eastern sections of the city.

In December, Israeli Vice Premier Haim Ramon said the country “must” give up sections of Jerusalem for a future Palestinian state, even conceding the Palestinians can rename Jerusalem “to whatever they want.”

“We must come today and say, friends, the Jewish neighborhoods, including Har Homa, will remain under Israeli sovereignty, and the Arab neighborhoods will be the Palestinian capital, which they will call Jerusalem or whatever they want,” said Ramon during an interview.

Positions held by Ramon, a ranking member of Olmert’s Kadima party, are largely considered to be reflective of Israeli government policy.

Olmert himself recently questioned whether it was “really necessary” to retain Arab-majority eastern sections of Jerusalem.

Israel recaptured eastern Jerusalem, including the Temple Mount – Judaism’s holiest site – during the 1967 Six Day War. The Palestinians have claimed eastern Jerusalem as a future capital; the area has large Arab neighborhoods, a significant Jewish population and sites holy to Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

About 231,000 Arabs live in Jerusalem, mostly in eastern neighborhoods, and many reside in illegally constructed complexes. The city has an estimated total population of 724,000.

Olmert to blame for dividing Jerusalem?

Ramon listed population statistics as the reason Olmert’s government finds it necessary to split Jerusalem.

But WND broke the story that according to Jerusalem municipal employees, during 10 years as mayor of Jerusalem, Olmert instructed city workers not to take action against hundreds of illicit Arab building projects throughout eastern sections of Jerusalem housing over 100,000 Arabs squatting in the city illegally.

The workers and some former employees claim Olmert even instructed city officials to delete files documenting illegal Arab construction of housing units in eastern Jerusalem.

Olmert was Jerusalem mayor from 1993 to 2003. As mayor, he made repeated public statements calling Jerusalem the “eternal and undivided capital” of Israel. Jerusalem municipal employees and former workers, though, paint a starkly contrasting picture of the prime minister.

“He did nothing about rampant illegal Arab construction in Jerusalem while the government cracked down on illegal Jewish construction in the West Bank,” said one municipal employee who worked under Olmert. She spoke on condition of anonymity, because she still works for the municipality.

One former municipal worker during Olmert’s mayoral tenure told WND he was moved in 1999 to a new government posting after he tried to highlight the illegal Arab construction in Jerusalem. He also spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing for his current job.

Aryeh King, chairman of the Jerusalem Forum, which promotes Jewish construction in Jerusalem, told WND an investigation by his group found Olmert’s city hall deleted files documenting hundreds of illegal Arab building projects throughout eastern sections of Jerusalem. He said he forwarded his findings to Israel’s state comptroller for investigation.

King also claims Olmert told senior municipal workers not to enforce a ban on illegal Arab buildings.

“Ehud Olmert gave the order not to deal with the problem and not to put Israeli security forces to the duty of taking down the illegal Arab complexes,” said King. “Senior municipal workers told me Olmert said not to bother with the illegal Arab homes, because eventually eastern Jerusalem would be given to the Palestinian Authority.”

King’s report alleges Jerusalem municipal officials erased the files, which detail over 300 cases of Arab construction in eastern Jerusalem deemed illegal starting from 1999. The illegal buildings reportedly were constructed without permits and are still standing. According to law, they must be demolished.

Local media reports investigating King’s charges alleged the files were erased by Ofir May, the head of Jerusalem’s Department of Building Permits, with the specific intention of allowing the statute of limitation on enforcing the demolition of the illegal construction to run out.

The Jerusalem municipality released a statement in response to the allegations claiming the threat of Arab violence kept it from bulldozing the illegal Arab homes.

“During the years of the intifada, the municipality had difficulty carrying out the necessary level of enforcement in the neighborhoods of eastern Jerusalem due to security constraints,” the statement read.

King said the hundreds of buildings allegedly detailed in the deleted municipal files house more than 20,000 illegal units.

“We’re talking about perhaps 100,000 or more Arabs in eastern Jerusalem living in illegal homes with the government doing nothing about it,” King said.