Last update - 00:00 19/09/2007
Coalition hawks slam reported Ramon plan for partition of J'lem
By Haaretz Service
Rightists in Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's ruling coalition reacted with alarm and criticism Wednesday to a reported proposal by Vice Premier Haim Ramon for a future partition of Jerusalem under a peace deal with the Palestinians.
Ramon was quoted by the Ynet Web site Tuesday as having written in a letter to Jerusalem City Councilman Nir Barkat that under his plan, "The Jewish neighborhoods will be recognized as Israeli and under Israeli sovereignty. Accordingly, the Arab neighborhoods (like Shoafat) will be recognized as Palestinian. Passages between the Israeli neighborhoods will be open and secure - accordingly the same will be true for the Palestinian neighborhoods."
According to the reported plan, "There will be special sovereignty over the holy sites, taking into account Israel's unique interests in overseeing them. Within this framework the Western Wall, the Jewish Quarter and other holy sites in the Jerusalem vicinity will remain under Israeli rule forever."
On Tuesday, MK Otniel Shneller, a Kadima party colleague of Olmert and Ramon, slammed the plan as violating the Kadima platform and belonging ideologically to the farthest left wing of the dovish Meretz party.
"These proposals are exactly congruent with the Meretz platform, on the basis of the Geneva Initiative," Shneller told Israel Radio. This means that we will not be able to fly the Israeli flag from the Western Wall.
This means the partition of Jerusalem. This is not just Meretz, this is the left-wing of Meretz."
According to Shneller, the Kadima platform rules out such a plan. "Under the Kadima platform, at least, Jerusalem will remain united. A united Jerusalem cannot abide a situation in which a sovereign flag cannot be flown in certain areas of the Old City.
Shneller said he had complete confidence that Olmert and Kadima would reject the proposal and see to it that Jerusalem remained united.
MK David Rotem of Yisrael Beiteinu called the reported Ramon proposal "disastrous" and a grave danger to Israel.
"The plan has but one purpose, courting leftist votes for a future election," Rotem said.
"Jerusalem is not just the capital of the right wing of Israel. Jerusalem is the indivisible capital of all Israel. Yisrael Beiteinu states that there will be no partition of Jerusalem."
The prime minister knows that we will not lend our hand to any injury to Jerusalem, nor to any baseless gestures [to the Palestinians], nor to any negotiations which are not give and take, but are only 'give.'"