- Title: JERUSALEM: ISRAEL FREEZE PLANS TO CONFISCATE ARAB LAND
- Date: 22nd May 1995
- Summary: JERUSALEM (MAY 22, 1995) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 1. SV NEWS CONFERENCE 0.04 2. SV ISRAELI FOREIGN MINISTER SHIMON PERES WITH OFFICIALS AT NEWS CONFERENCE. 0.19 3. SV ARAB CABINET MEMBER ABED EL-WAHAB DARWSHE SPEAKING IN PARLIAMENT (HEBREW) 1.00 4. SCU PERES ANNOUNCING FREEZE ON LAND APPROPRIATION AND FORM A COMMITTEE TO DISCUSS THE IS
- Embargoed: 6th June 1995 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: JERUSALEM
- City:
- Country: Israel
- Reuters ID: LVA89TUMA46UHZX2A1X7L0I5LAFG
- Story Text: Israel decided at an emergency cabinet meeting on Monday (May 22) to freeze its planned confiscation of land in Arab East Jerusalem.
Foreign Minister Shimon Peres announced the decision after a meeting with Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) Chairman Yasser Arafat.
"The government has decided to establish a team of ministers chaired by the prime minister to examine the issue of expropriating this land in Jerusalem," Peres said.
The PLO welcomed the decision.
"It seems that the Palestinian, Arab and international efforts have paid off," PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat's spokesman Nabil Abu Rdainah said.
The surprise climbdown was aimed at averting a threat to Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's nearly three-year-old government.
Two Arab-dominated parties which have propped up Rabin's minority coalition in parliament had vowed to vote against the government in a confidence vote later on Monday.
The Democratic Front for Peace and Equality, an Arab-dominated party, later said it was withdrawing the no-confidence motion.
Israel announced last month it would confiscate 131 acres (53 hectares) of land in Arab East Jerusalem, which Palestinians want for the capital of their future state, to build Jewish housing and a police station.
Israel captured East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war and claims the entire city as its indivisible capital.
The confiscation enraged Arabs and threatened the Middle East peace process.
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