Israel May Cede Jerusalem Environs

An Israeli Cabinet minister confirmed Tuesday that some Arab neighborhoods bordering Jerusalem will be transferred to full Palestinian control in a final peace deal, or even sooner.

The comments by Haim Ramon, a minister without portfolio who is in charge of Jerusalem affairs in the government of Prime Minister Ehud Barak, were among the most explicit yet by a senior Israeli official on the sensitive issue of Palestinian control over neighborhoods on the outskirts of Jerusalem.

Barak’s right-wing political opposition and Jewish settler leaders immediately accused the prime minister of giving in to Palestinian demands for territory near Jerusalem, whose status has long been viewed as one of the thorniest issues blocking a permanent Israeli-Palestinian accord.

Both Israel and the Palestinians lay claim to Jerusalem. Since 1967, when Israel captured East Jerusalem from Jordan, successive Israeli governments have declared the city the eternal, undivided capital of the Jewish state. The Palestinians, in turn, claim East Jerusalem as the capital of their own longed-for independent state.

“If we let [Palestinian Authority President Yasser] Arafat have full sovereignty so close, then he is almost on the fences of Jerusalem,” said lawmaker Reuven Rivlin of the opposition Likud Party. “It is a real cause for worry, and we reject this idea.”

But the apparent decision to grant the Palestinians authority over areas on the city’s northeastern edge, which has been discussed by academics and other opinion-makers here for years, also could point the way to a solution to the sensitive issue of Jerusalem’s future.

Speaking in an interview Tuesday with government-owned Israel Radio, Ramon pointed to several Arab villages on Jerusalem’s northeastern borders as examples of areas under joint Israeli-Palestinian control that will be handed over to full Palestinian authority, assuming security conditions are met. Zones of shared control are known as “B” areas by both sides; “A” areas are those fully under Palestinian rule.

“The question of when these areas will be ‘A,’ now or in the future, is not a major issue,” Ramon said. “But these areas will be ‘A.’ ”

He declined to say whether the land, which includes the communities of Abu Dis to the east and Al Ram to the north, will form part of Israel’s next withdrawal from the West Bank, which is due Jan. 20, or be part of later pullbacks.

Ziad abu Ziad, a Palestinian Cabinet minister with responsibility for Jerusalem, welcomed Ramon’s statement but said the Palestinians would have to wait for the land to be transferred before taking it seriously. “This is something we have been demanding for some time,” Abu Ziad said.

But other analysts wondered whether Ramon’s comments, which received scant attention from other Israeli media Tuesday, might be a trial balloon sent up by the government to gauge reaction.

Benny Kashriel, head of the settlers’ umbrella organization, said members of the group held an already scheduled meeting Tuesday to launch a “struggle headquarters” to fight government attempts to transfer land near Jerusalem to the Palestinians. Ramon’s words would make them redouble those efforts, he said.