August 13, 2008
JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has offered the Palestinians a peace plan giving them 93 per cent of the occupied West Bank, the Haaretz newspaper reported yesterday.
The proposed border is at the heart of a broader plan that would compensate the Palestinians with the equivalent of 5.5 per cent of the West Bank adjacent to the Gaza Strip and a route connecting Gaza to the West Bank itself.
But Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas would receive the land and the overland connection only once his forces retake Gaza from the Islamist Hamas movement, which seized power in the territory in June last year.
The proposal has been offered in the context of US-backed peace talks relaunched in November with the goal of resolving the decades-old conflict by the end of the year.
The proposed accord would be a "shelf agreement" to be implemented in the coming months and years, and would not immediately include the thorny issue of the future status of Jerusalem, Haaretz said.
The Palestinians have demanded mostly Arab east Jerusalem, which Israel occupied and annexed in the 1967 Six Day War, as their capital, while Israel considers the entire city its "eternal, undivided" capital - a claim not recognised by the international community.
The agreement would include a complex solution to the Palestinian refugee problem, allowing some refugees from the 1948 war to return to Israel while settling most of the 4.5 million refugees in the Palestinian state.
The 7 per cent of the West Bank annexed by Israel would include the major settlement blocs around Jerusalem - home to most of the 250,000 Israeli settlers in the territory - and some settlements in the northern West Bank. The final Palestinian state would be demilitarised.
Mr Olmert's spokesman declined to comment on the report but said "negotiations ... are making progress".
The talks were dealt a further blow last month when Mr Olmert announced he would resign later this year. He has been dogged by corruption probes in recent months and had faced widespread calls to resign.
Mr Olmert will step down after his centrist Kadima party chooses a new leader in a vote set for September 17.
JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has offered the Palestinians a peace plan giving them 93 per cent of the occupied West Bank, the Haaretz newspaper reported yesterday.
The proposed border is at the heart of a broader plan that would compensate the Palestinians with the equivalent of 5.5 per cent of the West Bank adjacent to the Gaza Strip and a route connecting Gaza to the West Bank itself.
But Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas would receive the land and the overland connection only once his forces retake Gaza from the Islamist Hamas movement, which seized power in the territory in June last year.
The proposal has been offered in the context of US-backed peace talks relaunched in November with the goal of resolving the decades-old conflict by the end of the year.
The proposed accord would be a "shelf agreement" to be implemented in the coming months and years, and would not immediately include the thorny issue of the future status of Jerusalem, Haaretz said.
The Palestinians have demanded mostly Arab east Jerusalem, which Israel occupied and annexed in the 1967 Six Day War, as their capital, while Israel considers the entire city its "eternal, undivided" capital - a claim not recognised by the international community.
The agreement would include a complex solution to the Palestinian refugee problem, allowing some refugees from the 1948 war to return to Israel while settling most of the 4.5 million refugees in the Palestinian state.
The 7 per cent of the West Bank annexed by Israel would include the major settlement blocs around Jerusalem - home to most of the 250,000 Israeli settlers in the territory - and some settlements in the northern West Bank. The final Palestinian state would be demilitarised.
Mr Olmert's spokesman declined to comment on the report but said "negotiations ... are making progress".
The talks were dealt a further blow last month when Mr Olmert announced he would resign later this year. He has been dogged by corruption probes in recent months and had faced widespread calls to resign.
Mr Olmert will step down after his centrist Kadima party chooses a new leader in a vote set for September 17.
Source: The Australian
Posts
