Ramon: Cede parts of Jerusalem to avoid conflict with US

Monday December 10, 2007 01:13 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC News

While still maintaining that construction should continue in the Israeli settlement of Har Homa, Israeli Vice Premier Haim Ramon said Sunday that Israel should give up some Arab neighborhoods in Jerusalem to the Palestinian Authority to avoid a conflict with the U.S.

Haim Ramon

 U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice challenged the Israeli government's decision to expand the settlement of Har Homa, built on the Palestinian-owned mountain of Abu Ghneim, next to Bethlehem, by another 300 units. She made no comment, however, on a planned expansion of 1200 new units and an industrial park to be built adjacent to the Israeli settlement of Ma'ale Adumim, east of Jerusalem.

Ramon stated that in order to maintain U.S. Support, Israel should consider giving up some of the Palestinian neighborhoods in Jerusalem that Israel has been occupying with military force since 1967. The Israeli Wall currently being constructed east of Jerusalem effectively annexes the entire city of Jerusalem for Israel, regardless of the Palestinian inhabitants which make up over half the population of the city.

'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 on Sunday. ''Then we won't get embroiled, as is happening now, in an uncalled-for and badly timed debate with the United States, at a time when we need its support.''

The Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki said the statement by Ramon is an attempt to confuse the issue in advance of a meeting between Palestinian and Israeli ministers on Wednesday. ''These statements place obstacles before any serious attempts by Palestinian negotiators on Jerusalem,'' Malki said. ''They aim to create confusion and change the course of negotiations before they begin. They try to pressure Palestinians and the international parties to think of Israeli needs before they begin.''

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