Netanyahu: Israel will never share Jerusalem

Published today (updated) 12/01/2010 11:23

Bethlehem - Ma'an -

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared on Tuesday that Israel would never cede control of occupied East Jerusalem, according to a bureau statement quoted by Israeli news reports.

The statement came after Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said last week that Netanyahu would discuss making East Jerusalem the capital of a future Palestinian state, a position accepted by most of the international community.

Netanyahu "has not changed his declared stance, and insists in all his political talks that united Jerusalem will remain under Israeli sovereignty in any peace agreement and that Israel's defense borders will not be paved back to the 1967 lines," the Hebrew-language daily Yedioth Ahronoth quoted the statement as stating.

Israel captured Palestinian East Jerusalem in 1967, declaring it the "eternal, undivided capital of Israel." The international community has never agreed to Israel's claims, and thus maintain embassies in Tel Aviv.

Sheikh Salah banned from entering Jerusalem

Published yesterday (updated) 12/01/2010 09:13

Jerusalem – Ma'an –

 The Israeli occupation government issued on Monday an order banning Shaikh Raed Salah, leader of  the Islamic movement inside the Palestinian territory under Israeli rule, from entering Jerusalem for six months.

Salah was summoned to the police station in Wadi Ara where he was handed the order. He was presented with a similar order limiting his freedom of movement three weeks prior, which expired on Monday. The new order was attached with a colored map designating the areas off-limits for the sheikh.

“We will reserve the permanent and perpetual right to enter the city of Jerusalem at any moment, without permission from anyone. At the same time, the evidence gathered confirms that 2010 will be a year of a fateful decision on the present and future of occupied Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa Mosque, especially if we connect these orders with the occupation’s false attacks, aimed at Judaizing Jerusalem and their plans to destruct Al-Aqsa Mosque," Saleh said in a statement.

Zahi Nujaidat, a lawyer representing the Islamic Movement, said the decision to ban the sheikh from entering Jerusalem was unjustified. “Israel’s decision is invalid because the Israeli occupation's presence in Jerusalem is invalid, and what is based on falsehood is false.”

“Hence, we say to you, that Sheikh Raed Salah retains his right to enter the city of Jerusalem when he deems it ... and know that your military orders and sham courts will not deter us and will not prevent us from communicating with Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa Mosque or our people, the Jerusalemites.”