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September 13, highly unlikely to be that date |
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September 11, 2000
GAZA CITY (AP) - Palestinian lawmakers reconvened Sunday to debate whether to declare statehood this week, with signs pointing to a delay despite a stalemate in peace talks with Israel. Israeli Cabinet minister Amnon Lipkin-Shahak warned that a unilateral declaration would bring an end to the negotiations. As the Palestinian Central Council began the second and final day of its session, chairman Selim Zanoun told reporters he expected a decision that would postpone the declaration, but not beyond the end of this year. Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat arrived in Gaza from New York Saturday for the meeting. Arafat has said that after Sept. 13, the target date Israel and the Palestinians set for completing a peace treaty, he has the right to declare a state, but indicated he would agree to a delay. Arafat told the council that negotiations with Israel would resume Sunday or Monday, shift into high gear and last for five weeks. However, acting Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami, Israel's chief negotiator, said, "I'm not aware that any talks are scheduled." He told The Associated Press that Israel is prepared to do all it can to reach an agreement, but "we don't suffer from an excess of optimism." Lipkin-Shahak, who was chief of staff of the Israeli military until 1998 and is considered close to Prime Minister Ehud Barak, also a former chief of staff, said a unilateral declaration of a state would mean the end of all peace talks. The apparent intention to put off the step, he said, shows that the Palestinians "do not want to bring about a total and final crisis," indicating that violent clashes in the West Bank and Gaza could result. Some Palestinians are showing impatience. About 250 demonstrators greeted the 128 council members with signs reading, "Yes to independence now." Israel and the Palestinians set the Sept. 13 target date for completing a peace treaty a year ago, when the signed their last interim accord in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. The date marks seven years since the original Israel-Palestinian accord was signed at the White House. Zanoun said the state announcement might be made Nov. 15, the anniversary of Arafat's first declaration of independence in 1988, or Jan. 1, when Arafat's Fatah movement marks its anniversary. Cabinet minister Nabil Shaath said the council would give the talks a "last chance" for another five weeks, or until Nov. 15. The main disagreement in the peace talks is over Jerusalem. U.S. President Bill Clinton failed to break the stalemate in separate talks with Arafat and Barak during the just-completed United Nations Millennium Summit in New York. Both Israel and the Palestinians demand sovereignty over a hill in the Old City of Jerusalem, holy to both Muslims and Jews. Barak agreed to give the Palestinians practical control over the Muslim holy sites, as they have today, but would not concede sovereignty. Jews call the hill the Temple Mount, where the biblical Jewish Temples stood. To Muslims, the site is Haram as-Sharif, the Noble Sanctuary, where they believe the Prophet Mohammed ascended to heaven. Arafat demands sovereignty over all of the traditionally Arab section of Jerusalem, including the Old City. Lipkin-Shahak rejected an idea raised an in Arabic language newspaper, that sovereignty over the hill could be given to the Muslims. Lipkin-Shahak said that would be the same as Palestinian sovereignty. If the Palestinians do not change their stand, he said, "it is difficult for me to see how we could reach an agreement." Palestinian official Nabil Amr said the Muslim sovereignty idea has not been raised in negotiations. |
