| w w w . h a a r e t z d a i l y . c o m |
|
|
|
Senior PA source: university re-opening part of wider dealA senior Palestinian figure claimed Monday that the decision to re-open the East Jerusalem offices of Al Quds University president Sari Nusseibeh is part of wider accord between Israel and the Palestinians.After ordering the closure of the offices two weeks ago, stirring up a howl of international protest, Public Security Minister Uzi Landau ordered them reopened Monday. The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that most of the details of the agreement were worked out at a meeting between the sides on Saturday night, at which new Palestinian Authority Interior Minister Abdel Razek Yehiyeh presented Israel with a security plan meant to end the violence, including returning civic order and taking control over the Palestinian security forces in the territories. The plan emphasizes the need for a change in the public atmosphere, with a campaign against violence, in order to fight terror. He believes that force alone is not enough to defeat terrorism. Yehiyeh presented the plan at the security meeting held on Saturday night in Tel Aviv between an Israeli team, headed by Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, and a PA team, headed by Minister Saeb Erekat. Yehiyeh's plan is similar to plans presented in the past, such as the Tenet plan and a Peres-Arafat plan worked out on Yom Kippur eve last year at the Dahaniyeh airport, though both were never implemented. According to the source, the catalyst for the agreements was massive U.S. pressure on Israel to re-open Nusseibeh's office. Nusseibeh is considered one of Arab figures closest to the current American administration. Landau lifted the closure after Nusseibeh, widely viewed as a leading moderate among Palestinian officials, signed a written pledge declaring that he would refrain from using the university offices as a representative agency of the Palestinian Authority. "We affirmed as a university that we are not part of the PA. We have no intention of being part of the PA, or being a representation office for the PA," Nusseibeh told Israel Radio. "This has always been like so in the past, and we confirmed it again today." Nusseibeh also pledged not to receive funds from the Palestinians Authority. Earlier this month, Landau ordered the offices closed, saying that he had evidence of "governmental and diplomatic activity" being conducted there. Foreign Minister Shimon Peres took issue with the closure, but Landau responded that he was within his rights to make decisions on police matters without prior consultation with Peres or with Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer. Fearing encroachment on its claims of exclusive sovereignty over the largely Arab East Jerusalem, Israel formally forbids Palestinians from engaging in activity of quasi-governmental or diplomatic nature there. The ban has not been consistently enforced in the past, however, in part a reflection of sensitivity over the city's eastern half, captured in 1967 and annexed in a step unrecognized by the bulk of the international community. As for Nusseibeh's position as the PLO's top political representative in Jerusalem, he said "The city is quite large, and one can do it from other places." Nusseibeh signed a "letter of obligation" Monday morning, witnessed by Public Security Ministry legal advisor Hannah Keller. According to the letter, "This institution ... or those who serve as its officers, will act (in a manner) disassociated from the Palestinian Authority, or receive monies from the Palestinian Authority ... will not act on its behalf or under its patronage ... and will not allow within its boundaries any activity of the Palestinian Authority." Nusseibeh further promised that when on university property, he would refrain from engaging in any activity connected to his role as the PA's top official in Jerusalem. Landau's closure order had stated that the university was acting as an unauthorized legation of the Palestinian Authority within the state of Israel. Landau's order was strongly criticized by U.S. authorities, who viewed it as a counter-productive measure taken against one of the few Palestinians who has been willing to go on record as favoring a non-violent struggle for Palestinian independence. Nusseibeh had also voiced willingness to forgo demands for a right of return for Palestinian refugees - an anathema to a broad majority of Israelis. By Barauch Kra and Yonaton Lis, Ha'aretz Correspondents
|
|
|
| /hasen/objects/pages/PrintArticleEn.jhtml?itemNo=189447 |