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JERUSALEM (AFP) - Palestinians dug in their heels ahead of a new U.S. push for peace on Thursday, with senior negotiator Mohammed Dahlan branding Israeli requests for flexibility over Jerusalem's holy sites as "insanity." "Israel's request that Palestinians back down on the Noble Sanctuary or accept imposed Israeli sovereignty over it is an attack of insanity," Gaza security chief Dahlan told the al-Ayyam newspaper. Dahlan left Wednesday along with fellow negotiator Saeb Erakat for New York where U.S. officials are preparing for talks to build a foundation for a final peace agreement which was due to have been concluded on Wednesday. The Noble Sanctuary, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, as it is built over the site of their Second Temple destroyed in 70 A.D., is revered by Muslims as their third holiest site, housing al-Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock mosques. The Western supporting wall of the plateau, often referred to as the Wailing Wall, is the most holy site in Judaism. Israel captured the disputed esplanade with the rest of east Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 war. The two sides missed a September 13th deadline for a peace accord and remain far apart on all the key issues in their conflict, including Jerusalem, the fate of 3.7 million Palestinian refugees and the size and shape of a future Palestinian state. Israel proposed limited Palestinian sovereignty over east Jerusalem during July's failed Camp David summit, which was hosted by U.S. President Bill Clinton. Israeli Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben Ami, who is already in New York, has ruled out any Israeli concessions over the fate of sites holy to both Jews and Muslims. However, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that Israel was not seeking control over the top of the esplanade where the mosques are located, but only over the Wailing Wall and the area underneath the mosque plaza. But Dahlan said: "There is not one Palestinian who would accept any type of Israeli sovereignty on the Islamic or Christian sites." "The only path open to [Israeli Prime Minister Ehud] Barak is recognizing the national rights of the Palestinians." The holiest site in Christendom, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, is elsewhere in east Jerusalem's Old City. |
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