Jerusalem Can Be 2 Capitals, Arafat Says

Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat, on a visit to Rome, said Jerusalem could house the capitals of two states. Attending a U.N. conference on Bethlehem in 2000, Arafat cited the example of Italy, where the tiny independent city-state of the Vatican is nestled inside Rome. “Just as both the capital of the Italian state and that of the Vatican are in Rome, so Jerusalem can contain two capitals, with no barrier or wall,” Arafat said. Palestinians want East Jerusalem to be the capital of a future state, but Israel regards the whole city as its “eternal and undivided” capital.