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Palestinian leader backtracks on broken taboos

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A right-wing supporter wearing a U.S President Clinton mask holds a sign referring to the concessions Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak is willing to make in Jerusalem during a demonstration in Jerusalem Sunday September 17, 2000. Israeli and Palestinian negotiators will resume peace talks on Monday. Sign reads "The Temple Mount is our heart"(AP PHOTO)

September 18, 2000 

JERUSALEM (AP) - A senior Palestinian negotiator has backtracked on the willingness to discuss ceding some West Bank territory to Israel, a major taboo broken the U.S.-brokered Camp David talks.

Ahmed Qureia, speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council, rejected Israel's demand that most of the Jewish settlers be allowed to remain in the West Bank, under Israeli sovereignty, concentrated in large blocs of settlement.

"These blocs would mean continuation of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land," he told reporters in remarks appearing in the Palestinian press on Sunday.

Qureia also rejected Israel's insistence on retaining a strip of land in the Jordan Valley for up to 20 years, for reasons of security.

At the Camp David talks in July, the Palestinians became the first Arab negotiators to discuss ceding territory. Palestinian negotiators said they were ready to give up the land in exchange for land in Israel proper. Israelis confirmed that, but said the Israeli land would only be in "symbolic" amounts.

Israel has also appeared to backtrack on some of the taboos it broke at Camp David, including acknowledging the refugee crisis created by its birth in 1948.

In addition, Palestinians say Prime Minister Ehud Barak has failed to implement long-standing interim agreements to release prisoners and hand over more territory.

The two sides remained divided on the future of Jerusalem, where the Palestinians wish to establish their capital alongside that of Israel. It was over Jerusalem that the Camp David summit broke down.

Qureia said Israel must recognize full Palestinian sovereignty over all of east Jerusalem. "After that Israeli interests can be discussed," he said.

The most sensitive issue is who will control the Al-Aqsa mosque compound. It is the third holiest place in the Islamic world but it is also sacred to Jews, because it is the site of the First and Second Jewish temples.

Israeli Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami said Sunday Israel will never give up sovereignty over the site. "The principle which guides Israel is that we came to the site of the temple never to be separated from it, and never to give up sovereignty there."

In an apparent reflection of the deadlock, about 50 Palestinian school children aged 10-13, pelted Israeli troops and police with stones and empty bottles Sunday at the Netzarim junction in the Gaza Strip. The police responded with tear gas and rubber-coated bullets. Five children and one Israeli border policeman were injured.

Around 50 children tried to break into the nearby Jewish settlement of Netzarim but were driven back by Palestinian police.

The attack was attributed to the stalemate in the peace negotiations but also to the anniversary of the 1982 massacre of Palestinians by Israel's Christian allies at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Beirut.

The Israeli army retaliated by closing the two crossing points from the Gaza Strip into Israel to Palestinian trucks.