Israel Backtracking on 'Eternal, United Jerusalem?'
By Julie Stahl
CNSNews.com Jerusalem Bureau Chief
October 08, 2007

Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) - An Arabic-language newspaper reported Monday that Israel and the Palestinians have struck a deal that would give Jordan control of Jerusalem's Temple Mount.

In addition, an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert suggested that Olmert is willing to divide the city - giving certain Arab neighborhoods in east Jerusalem to the Palestinians in exchange for Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office on Monday denied the report in Al-Quds al-Arabi that he and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas had agreed to transfer the Temple Mount's holy sites to Jordanian custody, the Jerusalem Post reported.

Jerusalem's Old City, including the Temple Mount, was in Jordanian hands from 1948-1967, when the Six-Day War reunited the city under Israeli control.

Since then, Israel has maintained overall sovereignty over Jerusalem but allowed Islamic religious authorities to control over the Temple Mount - where two consecutive Jewish Temples stood in Biblical times. The Temple Mount is now occupied by Muslim shrines, including the Al-Aksa Mosque and Golden Dome of the Rock.

Palestinians want the eastern part of the Jerusalem, including the Old City and Temple Mount, as the capital of a future Palestinian state. But Israel has always insisted that Jerusalem would remain its united capital forever.

This is not the first the first time Olmert's advisor, Vice Prime Minister Haim Ramon, has mentioned a plan to divide Jerusalem. Three weeks ago, he drew criticism when he suggested the idea publicly. At the time, Olmert's spokeswoman brushed off the remarks as Ramon's idea.

Government Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who heads the far-right Israel Beteinu party, said he would agree to an exchange of Arab neighborhoods in Jerusalem for Jewish West Bank settlement blocs located near Jerusalem.

But Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz said in a radio interview that Ramon's plan to divide Jerusalem would "never pass an Israeli government."

The reports came as Israeli and Palestinian negotiating teams met again, this time to work on a final declaration for an upcoming meeting in the United States. The meeting, which is supposed to take place next month -- possibly in Annapolis, Md. -- is intended to get the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks back on track.

Arab residents of Jerusalem are currently either Israeli citizens or permanent residents of Israel with all the privileges and rights of citizens, except the right to vote in national elections.

But Israeli government officials said that no agreements or understandings had been reached yet between the sides. Both sides are engaged in dialogue, the officials said.

Olmert and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas met last week, apparently to discuss what issues they can and cannot agreed upon when they meet in the United States.

Publicly, Israel says it wants the U.S.-sponsored meeting to result only a "declaration of intent," but the Palestinians have said it's not worth meeting unless it produces a concrete plan for resolving final status issues -- which include final borders, Palestinian refugees and sovereignty over Jerusalem, including the ancient Old City.