JERUSALEM – The Palestinian Authority last week held an official meeting in Jerusalem to discuss dealing with expected Palestinian sovereignty over key sections of the city, WND has learned.
Â
The Israeli government was fully aware of the PA meeting, according to diplomatic sources in Jerusalem.Â
Â
While Israel has not officially approved the PA's presence in Jerusalem, Palestinian diplomatic sources claimed there was an unwritten agreement in which Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office pledged not to interrupt some PA activities in Jerusalem.
Â
The PA planning meeting was held this past Thursday in eastern Jerusalem and dealt with establishing a Palestinian municipal presence in the city, according to a source attending the meeting.
The topics broached included setting up Palestinian agricultural, treasury and waste disposal systems in Jerusalem neighborhoods the PA expects to become part of a future Palestinian state.
Â
Officials present included the PA's treasury minister, who drove in from Ramallah in the West Bank, as well as former workers of Orient House, a building located in an eastern Jerusalem neighborhood that previously functioned as a de facto PA headquarters.
Â
Orient House was closed down by Israel in 2001 following a series of suicide bombings in Jerusalem and information Israel said indicated the House was used to plan and fund terrorism.
Â
Thousands of documents and copies of bank certificates and checks captured by Israel from Orient House – including many documents obtained by WND – showed the offices were used to finance terrorism, including direct payments to the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terror group.
WND previously broke the story Palestinian officials last year urged the U.S. to support what they said was a key demand allowing the PA to open official institutions in Jerusalem and to reopen Orient House to serve as their Jerusalem headquarters.
Â
The U.S. brought the request to Olmert last November, but according to sources in Jerusalem, Israeli officials replied that for domestic political reasons Olmert was waiting to allow the PA to have any official presence in Jerusalem.
Â
Olmert faces stated opposition from the Israeli Shas party, a member of his governing coalition whose leadership announced it would bolt Olmert's government if he negotiated over Jerusalem.
Â
Olmert has denied he is discussing ceding Jerusalem during regular Israeli-Palestinian talks started at last November's U.S.-backed Annapolis summit aimed at creating a Palestinian state before the end of the year.
Â
But PA President Mahmoud Abbas and other Palestinian leaders recently stated Jerusalem is being negotiated.
Â
"[Talks deal with] all the core issues without exception: Jerusalem, refugees, settlements, borders and security. We hope to achieve a settlement in 2008; there are many obstacles but we hope they will be removed. We are all pressing to reach a settlement by the target date," Abbas said in March.
Â
Foreign Minister Tzippy Livni has hinted several times Jerusalem is up for discussion.
Â
In December, Israeli Vice Premier Haim Ramon said the country "must" give up sections of Jerusalem for a future Palestinian state, even conceding the Palestinians can rename Jerusalem "to whatever they want."
"We must come today and say, friends, the Jewish neighborhoods, including Har Homa, will remain under Israeli sovereignty, and the Arab neighborhoods will be the Palestinian capital, which they will call Jerusalem or whatever they want," said Ramon during an interview.
Positions held by Ramon, a ranking member of Olmert's Kadima party, are largely considered to be reflective of Israeli government policy.
Olmert himself last year questioned whether it was "really necessary" to retain Arab-majority eastern sections of Jerusalem.
Israel recaptured eastern Jerusalem, including the Temple Mount – Judaism's holiest site – during the 1967 Six Day War. The Palestinians have claimed eastern Jerusalem as a future capital; the area has large Arab neighborhoods, a significant Jewish population and sites holy to Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
About 231,000 Arabs live in Jerusalem, mostly in eastern neighborhoods, and many reside in illegally constructed complexes. The city has an estimated total population of 724,000.
Olmert to blame for dividing Jerusalem?
Ramon listed population statistics as the reason Olmert's government finds it necessary to split Jerusalem.
But WND exposed that according to Jerusalem municipal employees, during 10 years as mayor of Jerusalem, Olmert instructed city workers not to take action against hundreds of illicit Arab building projects throughout eastern sections of Jerusalem housing over 100,000 Arabs squatting in the city illegally.
The workers and some former employees claim Olmert even instructed city officials to delete files documenting illegal Arab construction of housing units in eastern Jerusalem.
Olmert was Jerusalem mayor from 1993 to 2003. As mayor, he made repeated public statements calling Jerusalem the "eternal and undivided capital" of Israel. Jerusalem municipal employees and former workers, though, paint a starkly contrasting picture of the prime minister.
"He did nothing about rampant illegal Arab construction in Jerusalem while the government cracked down on illegal Jewish construction in the West Bank," said one municipal employee who worked under Olmert. She spoke on condition of anonymity, because she still works for the municipality.
One former municipal worker during Olmert's mayoral tenure told WND he was moved in 1999 to a new government posting after he tried to highlight the illegal Arab construction in Jerusalem. He also spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing for his current job.
Aryeh King, chairman of the Jerusalem Forum, which promotes Jewish construction in Jerusalem, told WND an investigation by his group found Olmert's city hall deleted files documenting hundreds of illegal Arab building projects throughout eastern sections of Jerusalem. He said he forwarded his findings to Israel's state comptroller for investigation.
King also claims Olmert told senior municipal workers not to enforce a ban on illegal Arab buildings.
"Ehud Olmert gave the order not to deal with the problem and not to put Israeli security forces to the duty of taking down the illegal Arab complexes," said King. "Senior municipal workers told me Olmert said not to bother with the illegal Arab homes, because eventually eastern Jerusalem would be given to the Palestinian Authority."
King's report alleges Jerusalem municipal officials erased the files, which detail over 300 cases of Arab construction in eastern Jerusalem deemed illegal starting from 1999. The illegal buildings reportedly were constructed without permits and are still standing. According to law, they must be demolished.
Local media reports investigating King's charges alleged the files were erased by Ofir May, the head of Jerusalem's Department of Building Permits, with the specific intention of allowing the statute of limitation on enforcing the demolition of the illegal construction to run out.
The Jerusalem municipality released a statement in response to the allegations claiming the threat of Arab violence kept it from bulldozing the illegal Arab homes.
"During the years of the intifada, the municipality had difficulty carrying out the necessary level of enforcement in the neighborhoods of eastern Jerusalem due to security constraints," the statement read.
King said the hundreds of buildings allegedly detailed in the deleted municipal files house more than 20,000 illegal units.
"We're talking about perhaps 100,000 or more Arabs in eastern Jerusalem living in illegal homes with the government doing nothing about it," King said.
To interview Aaron Klein, contact M. Sliwa Public Relations by e-mail, or call 973-272-2861 or 212-202-4453.
Special offers:
Definitive work on Mideast – available only here!
"Everlasting Hatred: The Roots of Jihad"
"The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades)"
"Myths and Facts: A Guide to the Arab-Israeli Conflict"
Perfect gift! Compass that points to Jerusalem
Abbas group claims it murdered Israeli
Israel to allow 'Palestinian refugees' to 'return'?
Rice: Most Israelis want to give up West Bank
Rice again calls Hamas 'resistance' movement
Rice calls Hamas 'resistance movement'
Rice ripped for avoiding terrorist label on Hamas
Leftist U.S. Jews still stand by border deal
Rice's border deal facilitated Israel attack
Leftist U.S. Jews stand by 'failed' border deal
Rice border deal has terrorists infiltrating Gaza
Leftist Jews urged Rice's 'tough line'