Arafat Suggests Two Capitals in Disputed Jerusalem

Using Rome and Vatican City as a model, Yasser Arafat proposed Tuesday that twin capitals be established in Jerusalem--one for Israel and the other for a Palestinian state. “If there is a will, there is a way,” the Palestinian Authority president said.

While objecting to Israel’s decision to build housing on the outskirts of traditionally Arab East Jerusalem, Arafat also reaffirmed his support for negotiations with Israel and called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “my partner” in peacemaking.

“We have no other choice but to keep on with the peace process,” Arafat said.

Yet he described Israel’s decision to put up a new Jewish neighborhood as “a unique challenge” to peace efforts and contended it violates Israeli-Palestinian agreements.

Declaring that an agreement he signed with assassinated Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin “clearly said there would be no demographic changes,” Arafat said: “Is it necessary to challenge the peace process and put it in a corner to build a new settlement? This is unfair.”

A day earlier, President Clinton chided Israel, saying the housing plan “builds mistrust.”

In a move that could further inflame Israeli-Palestinian relations, Netanyahu’s office said Tuesday that four Palestinian Authority offices in East Jerusalem will be shut down this week and that Palestinian security agents operating in the disputed area will be expelled.

The police will serve closure orders on the offices today, Netanyahu’s office said.

But it was not clear which offices Netanyahu was referring to, or whether they included Orient House, which has operated for years as the Palestine Liberation Organization’s unofficial foreign ministry in Jerusalem.

With negotiations on Jerusalem and other tough issues due to open soon, Arafat called for the city “to be the platform of the real peace in the land of peace,” suggesting that Rome be used as a model for the city’s future.

In Rome, he said, the Roman Catholic Church has the Vatican and Italy has its capital. Jerusalem, he said, should be like Rome.