 |
Al-Ahram Weekly 27 July - 2 August 2000 Issue No. 492 
|
||
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
| ||
|
Al-Ahram Weekly 27 July - 2 August 2000 Issue No. 492
|
||
| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
| ||
Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters 'Pray in Jerusalem'
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat kept the door open yesterday to further negotiations with Israel, while reaffirming his intention to declare an independent Palestinian state by 13 September deadline. Arafat made the remarks following a 90-minute meeting with President Hosni Mubarak in Alexandria, the Palestinian leader's first stop on his return from the failed Camp David summit.
According to Information Minister Safwat El-Sherif, Mubarak affirmed Egypt's commitment to "legitimate" Palestinian rights and to East Jerusalem as a part of Palestinian territory.
Indeed, it was the future of the Holy City, claimed by both Israel and the Palestinians as their capital, that was the principal stumbling block in the Camp David summit between Arafat, US President Bill Clinton and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak.
Speaking to reporters following the meeting with Mubarak, Arafat said: "God willing, we will pray in Jerusalem, whether they like it or not." Arafat told the assembled reporters that Jerusalem, home to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, is "our third holiest shrine. It is not at the disposal of the Palestinian people only, but is at the disposal of the Palestinian people, the Arab nation, the Islamic nation and the Christians of the world."
Hinting that he had not discounted the possibility of further talks with the US and Israel, Arafat recalled: "As President Clinton said yesterday [Tuesday], we may return next month to Washington, or any other place of his choice."
Answering a reporter's question, Arafat said: "Our patience is running out. We cannot forget at all that our people are suffering a great deal. What we are demanding is the implementation, an honest and thorough implementation, of signed agreements between us and the Israelis."
On the day Palestinian-Israeli negotiations collapsed a Palestinian looks towards a bulldozer near the Jewish settlement of Tekoa in the West Bank during a protest against Israeli road works on Palestinian land (photo: AP)
Asked by Al Ahram Weekly about future moves, Arafat responded: "We are supposed to continue negotiating...They [Americans] have informed us that they will follow up [the situation] with us. But we have an agreement with Barak's government [signed] in Sharm El-Sheikh to continue the negotiations until 13 September, which is the date for declaring our independent Palestinian state, whose capital is Jerusalem, whether they like it or not."
Citing an Arab saying, Arafat said: "If they don't like it, they can drink the water of the Gaza Sea and the Dead Sea as well."
Arafat described the Camp David negotiations as "very difficult." He said they covered not only Jerusalem, but also the issues of refugees, land and security. "Views came close, but no agreement was reached," he added, going on to praise President Clinton for arranging the Camp David summit.
El-Sherif revealed that Arafat had briefed Mubarak on "the important and difficult issues that were discussed, the Israeli views and the commitment to Palestinian rights."
"One of the most important subjects was the issue of Jerusalem and the commitment that East Jerusalem is part of Palestinian territory," El-Sherif said.
Mubarak affirmed Egyptian and Arab support for the Palestinians' "legitimate rights, in line with international legality," El-Sherif added.
Meanwhile, in Washington, Palestinian sources confirmed that Arafat had come under tremendous pressure from Clinton and his team to make concessions about Jerusalem, but put up strong resistance.
In announcing the end of the summit on Tuesday, Clinton said that both sides "engaged in comprehensive discussions that were really unprecedented because they dealt with the most sensitive issues. However, while we did not get an agreement, significant progress was made on the core issues."
Clinton made it clear that whatever was achieved will not be binding. "Under the operating rules that nothing is agreed until everything is agreed, they are, of course, not bound by any proposal discussed at the summit," he said.
Before leaving Camp David, Barak even insisted that he was not bound by previous agreements to implement a third re-deployment of Israeli forces in the West Bank.
Blaming Arafat for the negative outcome of the summit, Israel's prime minister argued that "Arafat hesitated to take the historic decisions needed..."
As expected, it was the status of Jerusalem that provided the seemingly insurmountable hurdle.
"The American broker worked on compromises that no Palestinian or Arab leader can accept," a Palestinian source said. "No creative solution can take the place of the fact that [East] Jerusalem is occupied territory, seized by Israel by force in 1967."
"I think," said US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, "that the Palestinians had certain ideas, but one has to honestly say that Prime Minister Barak was the one that had the interesting perceptions and ideas."
And those ideas? What Israel offered, with American backing, was Israeli sovereignty over the Holy City, while giving the Palestinians symbolic sovereignty over parts of East Jerusalem.
As the talks collapsed, the White House did, however, salvage a trilateral statement that read: "The two sides understand the importance of avoiding unilateral actions that prejudice and prejudge the outcome of negotiations," the statement said.
The question is open whether, if no deal is reached by 13 September, Arafat will deliver on his promise to declare a state.
Albright said any state has to come as part of a "comprehensive solution and should have international recognition and should not be unilateral action." She affirmed the American position "now and in the future that unilateral action is not the solution."
Sources told the Weekly that Albright was expected to return to the region in August to touch base and see if conditions were ripe for re-starting negotiations, while following the stop-over in Alexandria, Arafat flew back to Gaza for a hero's welcome.
Nevine Khalil in Alexandria, Hoda Tewfik in Washington
Related stories:
Full deal, or no deal- 20 - 26 July 2000
'Our homeland is not for sale' 20 - 26 July 2000
A final summit? 20-26 July 2000
