MIDEAST: 100.00 ISRAELIS RALLY IN JERUSALEM AGAINST CEDING ANY CONTROL TO THE PALESTINIENS

Record ID: 215393

  • Title: MIDEAST: 100.00 ISRAELIS RALLY IN JERUSALEM AGAINST CEDING ANY CONTROL TO THE PALESTINIENS
  • Date: 8th January 2001
  • Summary: JERUSALEM (JANUARY 8, 2001) (REUTERS - PART NO ACCESS ISRAEL; PART NO ACCESS IBA ISRAEL) NIGHT SCENES 1. VARIOUS OF MOUNTED POLICE USING THEIR HORSES TO SEPARATE ISRAELI AND PALESTINIAN DEMONSTRATORS (6 SHOTS) 0.34 2. PUSH OUT DEMONSTRATORS (WITH FAMILIES AND CHILDREN) WALKING 0.46 3. PUSH OUT TOUSANDS OF DEMONSTRATORS OUTSIDE THE
  • Embargoed: 23rd January 2001 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: JERUSALEM
  • City:
  • Country: Jerusalem Jerusalem MIDDLE EAST
  • Reuters ID: LVA7S11XC1FUFFRH806MGEFJJG1L
  • Story Text: An estimated 100,000 Israelis have rallied against
    ceding any control to the Palestinians in Jerusalem, dealing a
    further blow to U.S. President Bill Clinton's slim hopes of
    clinching a last-gasp peace deal.



    Thousands of right wing Israelis gathered on Monday
    (January 8) for a rally outside the walls of the Old City in
    Jerusalem demanding that the city remain under Israeli rule.

    Near the Muslim quarter of the Old City, mounted Israeli
    police used their horses to separate Israeli demonstrators and
    Palestinian residents, in order to prevent scuffles.

    Recorded music echoed off the ancient walls of the Old City
    as flag-waving Israelis danced and choirs sang in a show of
    support for keeping all of Jerusalem under Israeli control.

    One poster read, "Jerusalem is David's city, not
    Arafat's," referring to the biblical King David and to
    Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.

    The compound contains Temple Mount, which is holy to Jews,
    and is also one of Islam's holiest sites, al-Haram al-Sharif.

    It houses the al-Aqsa and Dome of the Rock mosques revered by
    Muslims as the site from which the Prophet Mohammad ascended
    to heaven.

    The holy site also has been central to the latest spate of
    Israeli-Palestinian violence, in which at 303 Palestinians, 13
    Israeli Arabs and 43 other Israelis have been killed since
    Israeli hard-liner Ariel Sharon visited the shrine in
    September.

    Thousands of police had been deployed since early morning
    at the main rallying point at Jaffa Gate, one of the main
    entrances to the walled Old City, which Israeli has occupied
    since the 1967 Middle East war.

    Demonstrators had planned to link hands around the Old
    City, but police limited the human chain to sections of the
    walls away from main Muslim neighbourhoods to prevent
    violence.

    Speaking at the rally, right-wing Jerusalem mayor Ehud
    Olmert called on U.S President Clinton not to propose the
    division of the city.

    "On behalf of the city of Jerusalem, on behalf of the four
    hundred thousand people that were gathered tonight at the
    largest rally in the history of Jerusalem and the state of
    Israel, I want to ask you, please mister President, don't let
    yourself be the first president in the history of your country
    who will officially be registered as the person who proposed
    the division of the historical, ancient, eternal capital of the
    Jewish people," said Olmert.

    Passions are rising in Israel about the city's future
    status amid suspicions that Prime Minister Ehud Barak is
    prepared to concede partial sovereignty of Jerusalem to
    Palestinians as part of a U.S.-proposed peace deal.

    Speaking from the rally amongst the crowds, former Israeli
    Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, "For us Jerusalem is
    the heart and the soul of our people. The object of an
    unbelievable attachment between people and the city, and the
    idea to tear up our heart is an absurd."
    Barak, who won a landslide victory in the May 1999
    general election against right-wing opponent Benjamin
    Netanyahu, has found himself largely isolated in the current
    campaign.

    Trailing far behind right-wing challenger Ariel Sharon in
    opinion polls, Barak faces an uphill battle to win re-election
    in Israel's February 6 prime ministerial ballot.

    As the tens of thousands of Israelis rallied against any
    Palestinian claim to Jerusalem, a U.S. special envoy was
    heading back to the Middle East on Tuesday (January 9)
    for a last-ditch peacemaking effort in the dying days of
    the Clinton administration
    Veteran Middle East peace envoy Dennis Ross was returning
    to the region a day after Palestinian negotiators rejected
    Clinton's blueprint for peace with Israel,
    The Jerusalem crowd was implacably opposed to a central
    plank of the settlement Clinton spelled out in a speech to the
    Israeli Policy Forum in New York -- giving Palestinians
    control of Arab areas in the city and sharing access to
    its holy sites.

    Israel captured Arab East Jerusalem, including the Old
    City and its holy shrines, in the 1967 war and annexed it in a
    move not recognised internationally. Palestinians want East
    Jerusalem to be the capital of their future state.


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