Subscribe to Print Edition | Sun., December 09, 2007 Kislev 29, 5768 | | Israel Time: 21:02 (EST+7)
Haaretz israel news English
web haaretz.com
  Back to Homepage
Rosner's Domain
Diplomacy
Defense Jewish World Opinion National
Print Edition
Advertising
Books Arts & Leisure Business Real Estate Easy Start Travel Week's End Anglo File Hanukkah
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Vice Premier Haim Ramon attending a Kadima Party meeting in Petah Tikva on Thursday. (Nir Kafri)
del.icio.us
Digg It!  new
Last update - 07:32 21/09/2007
Kadima members disagree over how J'lem should be divided
By Nadav Shragai, Haaretz Correspondent
Tags: Israel, Jerusalem, Kadima 

Serious differences of opinion have erupted in Kadima over the possibility that the agreement of principles Israel is now negotiating with the Palestinians will determine the final-status deal on Jerusalem.

Seven years after the Camp David summit in 2000 and the cabinet's subsequent decision to adopt, with reservations, then U.S. president Bill Clinton's plan to divide the capital, no one in Kadima is asking whether Jerusalem will be re-divided. The only question is how it will be re-divided.

Vice Premier Haim Ramon is promoting a plan to Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayad in which almost all Palestinian neighborhoods of East Jerusalem would be subtracted from the Israeli city and become part of a Palestinian capital in East Jerusalem. The areas inhabited by Jews, including the new neighborhoods south, north and east of the Green Line that divided the city until 1967, will remain under Israel's jurisdiction.
Advertisement
The plan would also divide the Old City between Israeli and Palestinian sovereignty, with the Muslim and Christian Quarters under Palestinian rule, and the Armenian and Jewish Quarters under Israeli rule. Sovereignty over the Temple Mount would be divided between Palestinians and Jews as well.

Ramon proposes handing over three neighborhoods soon after the agreement of principles is signed, if Israel is convinced that the Palestinian Authority can control them: Shuafat, in northern Jerusalem, near Pisgat Ze'ev and Atarot; Suahra, on the edge of the Judean desert; and Wallijeh, a village near the Massuah neighborhood overlooking the railway to Tel Aviv.

In recent weeks, however, a counter-coalition inside Kadima has sprung up, headed by MK Otniel Schneller. Schneller is unwilling to give up Israeli sovereignty over the Old City and the Temple Mount, but will accept religious management of the holy sites. He is also willing to give up neighborhoods on the outskirts of the city - mostly to the north, such as Al-Ram, Qalandiyah and Kafr Akeb (most of which are already outside the separation fence) - as well as parts of a few other neighborhoods.

However, Schneller stays away from calling his plan "division." He will not accept any substantial concession on the Temple Mount and demands that in the final Jerusalem arrangement, space be allocated on the Temple Mount for Jewish prayer - a demand former prime minister Ehud Barak raised at Camp David in 2000.

Schneller believes that decisions about the future of Jerusalem should be made by representatives of the entire Jewish people, not just the Israeli public. He also believes that if the Ramon plan is adopted, Kadima will disintegrate, as many parliamentarians will be unable to support it.

Kadima's mayoral candidate in the capital, businessman Nir Barkat, has already said that he is considering leaving the party due to the Ramon plan. Barkat wrote to Ramon this week saying that he had not been authorized by either the government or the party to propose plans on Jerusalem, and that Jerusalem and the rest of the country are entitled to know if this is the new Kadima position, and whether Ramon is acting on Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's authority.

That, in a nutshell, is the key question: What does Olmert think? Back when he was mayor of Jerusalem, Olmert rejected any proposal for division - of the Temple Mount, the Old City or East Jerusalem as a whole. But Olmert is remaining mum, and his associates say that Ramon has permission but not authority.

Many politicians believe this obscurantist formula means that Olmert is using Ramon's plan as a trial balloon. If it does not explode, Olmert is likely to adopt large sections of the plan.

The battle inside Kadima over whether Jerusalem will be divided has already been decided. The question now is how - and also whether the party, as Ramon has, will call the spade a spade: division.
Bookmark to del.icio.us
Serious accusation
Iran claims that U.S. data on their nuclear program came from spying.
No plans to stop
The Housing Minister says there's no reason to stop E. J'lem construction.
  1.   I wonder whether this is just a feint 06:37  |  Rowan Berkeley 21/09/07
  2.   devide 06:49  |  colin 21/09/07
  3.   Will The Jews Wake Up In Time? 07:31  |  Ben Israel 21/09/07
  4.   turning back the clock 07:33  |  chuck 21/09/07
  5.   turning back the clock 07:33  |  chuck 21/09/07
  6.   #1 - I doubt it 07:43  |  JES 21/09/07
  7.   Kadima will soon evaporate 08:15  |  Moshe 21/09/07
  8.   Obviously Not Workable 08:26  |  Efox 21/09/07
  9.   #6 JES 08:40  |  Rowan Berkeley 21/09/07
  10.   ramon of all people! 08:41  |  rex 21/09/07
  11.   Terrorists will blow up the churches 08:53  |  NYer 21/09/07
  12.   Rowan Berkley,the True IRA is the right mediciner for bigots like 09:15  |  Absolute Sweden 21/09/07
  13.   Kadima puzzling over the rules 09:27  |  Natallie Durson 21/09/07
  14.   At least the Temple Mount is not an issue of contention 09:28  |  Ivar 21/09/07
  15.   Jerusalem is already divided 09:32  |  SD 21/09/07
  16.   #9 Speculation and assumptions 09:39  |  JES 21/09/07
  17.   #12 obselete sweden 09:55  |  Rowan Berkeley 21/09/07
  18.   We want to know what Kadima degenerates agree on, but 10:19  |  Sal 21/09/07
  19.   Rowan, I have to agree with Jes 10:35  |  Navy Vet 21/09/07
  20.   Withdraw ...WITHDRAW !!! 11:35  |  eddie - Haifa 21/09/07
  21.   Olmert doesn`t think unless it has to do with votes 11:35  |  David Teich 21/09/07
  22.   The Israelis are being hoodwinked 11:38  |  Zev 21/09/07
  23.   Insanity in Israel 11:44  |  Sidney 21/09/07
  24.   the acid test is a referendum and new elections 11:48  |  victor hardman 21/09/07
  25.   TEMPE MOUNT: PARTITION IS ONLY SOLUTION 11:54  |  Secular Israeli 21/09/07
  26.   there is no reason for israel to keep 11:55  |  harzion 21/09/07
  27.   ramon is wrong to look for a one sided withdrawl 11:57  |  harzion 21/09/07
  28.   To national socialist Rowan Berkley 12:03  |  Absolute Sweden 21/09/07
  29.   AN ABOMINATION TO G-D DIVIDING ANY PART OF ERETZ YISRAEL ?? 12:30  |  Bill 21/09/07
  30.   Give away Olmert, Ramon and Kadima instead !!!!! 12:36  |  Wendy 21/09/07
  31.   J`lem should be divided are you crazy??? 13:12  |  Daniel 21/09/07
  32.   Israel Has Atherosclerosis 13:20  |  Avi (from Poland) 21/09/07
  33.   Kadima 14:23  |  Ralph 21/09/07
  34.   I STICK MY TONGUE OUT ON RAMON`S PLAN..... 14:50  |  Ben Avraham 21/09/07
  35.   Help save Israel. Do this IMMEDIATELY! 14:51  |  Chaim 21/09/07
  36.   Temple mount 15:15  |  bruce 21/09/07
  37.   Aliens Would Laugh At Us 15:19  |  dyinglikeflies 21/09/07
  38.   Reply to Daniel in Amsterdam (Post No. 31) 15:26  |  Johnny Weintraub 21/09/07
  39.   The modern State of Israel rests on the Temple Mount 15:44  |  Hal 21/09/07
  40.   Israel doesnt need to give anything away 15:57  |  AV 21/09/07
  41.   WHY THIS GUY is still in the GOVERNMENT 15:59  |  mike 21/09/07
  42.   Now I know why nations dont recognize Jer as Israel`s capital 16:03  |  Ben 21/09/07
  43.   Divisions 16:04  |  David 21/09/07
  44.   Divisions 16:04  |  David 21/09/07
  45.   jerusalem is no Longer the capital of Israel 16:08  |  SJ 21/09/07
  46.   @bill borders 16:10  |  A. Rubinstein 21/09/07
  47.   Jerusalem 16:14  |  emad matahin 21/09/07
  48.   Its as simple as all that! This Government must go!.... 16:30  |  Natasha 21/09/07
  49.   Give the Arabs Tel Aviv instead 16:34  |  Avi 21/09/07
  50.   Shneller is right 16:37  |  Gene 21/09/07
  51.   Moshe #7 - and when will that election be? 16:39  |  Polybios 21/09/07
  52.   Kadima members disagree over how J`lem should be divided 16:52  |  Nathan S 21/09/07
  53.   SJ 17:33  |  Hear the truth 21/09/07
  54.   Kadima=The Cowards Party 17:40  |  Steven 21/09/07
  55.   wake up!!! 18:22  |  ravi 21/09/07
  56.   What, a country ???? 18:36  |  Ray 21/09/07
  57.   People talking against this are fools 18:39  |  Chaim ben Ramon 21/09/07
  58.   kadima could disagree if they owned jerusalem/israel-they dont 18:42  |  yahn goodey 21/09/07
  59.   How about just obeying international law (for once) 18:47  |  peacelover 21/09/07
  60.   emad matahin #47 18:58  |  Polybios 21/09/07
  61.   Don?t divide Jerusalem 19:01  |  KUTW 21/09/07
  62.   Reality 19:09  |  Free Voice 21/09/07
  63.   No. 58--Goody 19:12  |  steve 21/09/07
  64.   REspond to REvi 19:43  |  TOBIA 21/09/07
  65.   Israel owns Jerusalem and nobody else does 19:44  |  Hal 21/09/07
  66.   Inevitable sharing of Jerusalem! 19:45  |  akiva 21/09/07
  67.   Polybios #60 20:33  |  emad matahin 21/09/07
  68.   Hal, you are stuck in a Kahanist Dreamland 20:50  |  Ibrahim 21/09/07
  69.   KUTW 21:59  |  Danite 21/09/07
  70.   @46 A RUBINSTEIN 22:08  |  Bill 21/09/07
  71.   No. 65--Hal 22:21  |  steve 21/09/07
  72.   #59 peacelover fails to name the law or the country ? 22:38  |  victor hardman 21/09/07
  73.   Nonsense Jerusalem will never divided 22:43  |  e.m 21/09/07
  74.   Re:Kutw.Don`t be naive no one will divide the Jerusalem 22:57  |  e.m 21/09/07
  75.   Bringing In Ramon Was As Smart As The Lebanon War 23:01  |  Yoram 21/09/07
  76.   to #57--AMEN! 23:31  |  Rev. Gretchen 21/09/07
  77.   @46 A RUBINSTEIN 2/ 23:50  |  Bill 21/09/07
  78.   #26 Harzion 23:52  |  Richelle 21/09/07
  79.   #43 David 23:58  |  Richelle 21/09/07
  80.   Remember when Arafat said... 00:03  |  Scharker Yid