GAZA, Jan 1 (KUNA) — Israelis must understand even their country’s closest allies want Israel to pull back from the West Bank of the Jordan River and share Jerusalem, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said in an interview published Tuesday.
When speaking of the future, “the world that is friendly to Israel…speaks of Israel in terms of the ’67 borders. It speaks of the division of Jerusalem, ” Olmert said in the interview with the English-language Jerusalem Post newspaper.
Israel captured the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast war. Palestinians want those territories for an independent state, with East Jerusalem as their capital.
Olmert has launched negotiations with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on a peace deal both leaders hope to reach by the end of this year. In the past, Olmert has said Israel would have to withdraw from parts of the West Bank and has signalled he would be prepared to hand over some Arab neighbourhoods of East Jerusalem to Palestinian sovereignty.
But Olmert told the Jerusalem Post that Israel would be able to hold on to some areas on the West Bank in any peace deal, with U.S. approval. Although Israel has promised to halt building in its West Bank settlements, Olmert said that did not apply to all settlements.
He mentioned Maaleh Adumim, a large settlement on the West Bank outside Jerusalem, which he said is “an indivisible part of Jerusalem and the state of Israel.” “I don’t think when people are talking about settlements they are talking about Maaleh Adumim.” Palestinians reject any settlement construction, saying it compromises peace negotiations and violates Israel’s commitments. They also want Israel to halt all construction in East Jerusalem.
In the interview Tuesday, Olmert said Israel had to withdraw from Palestinian territory to preserve itself as a democracy and a predominantly Jewish state.
“Will we live eternally in a confused reality where 50 percent of the population or more are residents but not equal citizens who have the right to vote like us?” Israel annexed East Jerusalem after the 1967 war but very few of its 240, 000 Arab residents became Israeli citizens. Israel never annexed the West Bank, home to 2.5 million Palestinians and it evacuated Gaza, home to 1.5 million Palestinians, in 2005.