By DPA
Jerusalem : A confidant of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Monday his government would support passing some of the Arab neighbourhoods in East Jerusalem to Palestinian sovereignty.
Along with Olmert’s ruling Kadima party, both the coalition, left-of-centre Labour Party and the right-wing, ultra-nationalist Israel Our Home party would support such a move, Vice Prime Minister Haim Ramon told Israel Radio.
His remark comes as Israel and the Palestinians are negotiating a joint declaration ahead of a US-hosted international conference in Annapolis, Maryland in November, which is expected to touch on some of the core issues of their mutual conflict, including possibly the status of Jerusalem, the borders of a future Palestinian state and the Palestinian refugee problem.
Ramon said it was too early to discuss the sovereignty of Jerusalem’s disputed holy sites, adding a “special administration” should rule them, the specifics of which were to be discussed “in the future.”
Israel, he added, would not recognize the right of Palestinian refugees and their descendants to return to Israeli territory, “not legally nor morally.” But it should allow debate on the entry of individual cases based on humanitarian grounds, he said. “The thought that Israel would collapse because of this is ridiculous,” he said.
Ramon is considered Olmert’s closest ally within Kadima, but it was unclear whether he was voicing his private opinion or testing the waters on behalf of the premier.