By NNN-WAFA,
Ramallah : The Palestinian leadership has rejected a reported Israeli peace proposal because it does not provide for a contiguous Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.
Palestinian presidency spokesman Nabil Abu Rdeineh told WAFA that the proposal does not fall in line with requirements of the Road Map and the Annapolis understandings that the borders of the future Palestinian state should correspond with Israel’s pre-1967 borders.
Abu Rdeineh was responding to a report in the Israeli daily Haaretz Tuesday that said Israel had made the proposal which included land compensation and an offer of a corridor that would connect the Gaza Strip with the West Bank.
“The Israeli proposal is not acceptable,” he said. “The Palestinian side will only accept a Palestinian state with territorial continuity, with holy Jerusalem as its capital, without settlements, and on the June 4, 1967 boundaries.”
According to the report, Israel would maintain large blocs of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Jerusalem. It also says that the proposal rejects the Palestinian demand for what Palestinians call the right of return for Palestinian refugees.
The report said Jerusalem was not included in the proposed agreement and was postponed until a later date, because of internal Israeli political considerations.
Under the proposal, Israel would return to the Palestinians some 92.7 per cent of the occupied West Bank, plus all of the Gaza Strip, according to Western and Palestinian officials briefed on the negotiations.
In exchange for West Bank land that Israel would keep, Olmert proposed a 5.3 per cent land swap giving the Palestinian side a desert territory adjacent to the Gaza Strip.
Abu Rdeineh commented that the Palestinian side would not accept any land swap unless it was acceptable in both “size and quality.”
He affirmed that just peace can only be achieved through implementing the national and international principles, pointing out that “if Israel seriously seeks peace, it should abide by the resolutions of the international legitemacy, the Road Map and the vision of the US President George W.Bush.”