U.N. Control of Holy Site in Jerusalem Again an Option

A once-unthinkable proposal to turn over the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City to United Nations authority is being resurrected in an attempt to breathe new life into peace talks between the Israelis and Palestinians, officials from several nations said Friday.

The proposal, which Israel is said to now favor but Palestinians so far oppose, comes as American officials struggle for ways to salvage negotiations and set the Middle East on the road to a definitive peace. Within the next few days, Israeli and Palestinian negotiators are awaiting a U.S. draft of “bridging proposals” designed to bring the two sides closer.

Intense talks sponsored by President Clinton at Camp David in July broke down in large part over the issue of Jerusalem, and control of the Old City’s sacred Temple Mount remains the seemingly insurmountable obstacle. The site is of paramount holy significance to both Jews and Muslims, who know it as Haram al Sharif.

A suggestion to transfer sovereignty over the site to the U.N. first emerged at Camp David but faded as the talks collapsed. Under the revived proposal, sovereignty would be placed in the hands of the 15-nation U.N. Security Council or its five permanent member states, according to officials familiar with the idea.

Senior Palestinian spokesmen warned that they intend to reject the proposal out of hand and will continue to insist on full control over Haram al Sharif and all of East Jerusalem. In a Cabinet meeting Friday night, the Palestinian leadership said there is no room for compromise on Muslim and Christian holy sites.

However, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is reported to back the idea, and he eventually may face the task of persuading Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat to accept it.

Aides to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak confirmed Friday that the U.N. presence was under discussion. At the same time, Barak’s spokesman, Gadi Baltiansky, downplayed the proposal as one of several that emerged at Camp David and afterward but that will not take on further importance until Arafat shows a greater willingness to compromise.

The most explicit account of the proposal appeared in Haaretz, a leading Israeli newspaper and a frequent vehicle for government trial balloons. Details were confirmed in various degrees by Israeli, U.S. and U.N. officials.

Israeli officials, hoping to gain both domestic and Palestinian support for the idea, were keen to portray it as a U.S. initiative. An already beleaguered Barak will find it impossible to sell a U.N. role on Temple Mount to much of his constituency, and least of all to the vociferous right-wing opposition.

Proponents said the arrangement would be largely symbolic and would generally preserve the status quo--that is, Palestinians would retain custodial authority over the site through the Islamic Trust, which administers Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem, while Israel would retain the overall authority it currently exercises.

No security role for the U.N. is envisioned, international officials said. That means blue-helmeted U.N. troops will not soon be patrolling the center of Jerusalem. On the other hand, fundamental questions of who would be in charge of routine security and maintenance matters--who would patrol the streets and pick up the trash--remain open.

What the U.N. umbrella would allow is for Israel to say it did not relinquish sovereignty to the Palestinians and the Palestinians to say they did not relinquish sovereignty to Israel.

And because the U.N. player here would be the Security Council, or its five-member permanent board, the United States would have a preeminent role.

Israel’s acting foreign minister, Shlomo Ben-Ami, told Israeli radio that he had discussed the proposal with the Americans, with Egyptian envoys and with French President Jacques Chirac.

Israel has had contentious relations with the U.N. for decades, and turning to the world body is seen by many analysts here as, in the words of one, an act of desperation.

“We are running out of ideas to play with,” said an official from another nation.

Palestinian officials also downplayed expectations concerning the forthcoming U.S. “bridging proposals.” Clinton was reported to be mulling over suggestions with aides. It was not clear whether the Americans will present a draft treaty, a document of any kind or simply a less formal series of summarized position statements.

Meanwhile, in a small glimmer of hope, Israeli television reported Friday night that Barak’s and Arafat’s offices were trying to arrange a meeting between the two leaders within a matter of days.

Clinton hopes for a peace deal before he leaves office in January. Arafat has set Nov. 15 as his latest target date for declaring an independent state, and Barak faces a showdown over his own political future when the Israeli parliament reconvenes Oct. 29.