By Xinhua
Jerusalem : Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Tuesday told representatives of religious Jewish settlers in Jerusalem that Israel will have to make concession in its efforts to make peace with the Palestinians, local media reported.
Olmert on Tuesday met with heads of Yesha Council, an organization representing the various municipal councils of religious Jewish settlements, in a bid to dispel some of their worries ahead of the upcoming U.S.-sponsored peace conference scheduled for Nov. 26 in Annapolis, Maryland. This was Olmert’s first meeting with members of the Yesha Council since he took office.
Olmert said that “I know that in order to ensure a future for Israel as a Jewish democratic state, we will have no choice but to make some concessions. I feel that on this point I am embroiled in a heartbreaking disagreement with your public, a public that I myself was part of.”
The Yesha Council representatives initiated the meeting to express their concerns over the return of lands to the Palestinians under a possible future peace accord.
Olmert also said that “I can say with certainty that there are lands that I would never withdraw from, and this is something that both the Palestinians and the Americans know.”
He added that he would like to conduct a dialogue with the settlers, and that he intends to meet with them soon, when there is progress in the negotiations with the Palestinians.
Yesha Council Chairman Danny Dayan said that now he and his associates understand that the state’s total freeze on West Bank settlements is not simply pressure to remove settlers but rather an independent political policy.
Palestinian National Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has been calling on Israel to halt settlement expansion in the West Bank, which the Palestinians want for a future state.