Palestinian Offices Are Reopened
Israeli police reopened the university offices of the leading Palestinian official in Jerusalem on Monday, two weeks after they claimed that the premises were being used for Palestinian Authority activity and shut them down.
Sari Nusseibeh, president of Al Quds University and the chief representative of the Palestine Liberation Organization in Jerusalem, said he signed a document Monday agreeing not to use the premises for political activity. However, he said he’d conduct his PLO activity elsewhere.
The shutdown of the offices was criticized as counterproductive by the United States, and Nusseibeh denied that they were being used to conduct activity on behalf of the Palestinian Authority.
“We have not been in the past, and we do not intend to be in the future, a representative office of the Palestinian Authority,” Nusseibeh told reporters.
Under interim peace accords signed since 1993, the Palestinian Authority cannot maintain any representation in East Jerusalem.
Nusseibeh is considered a moderate and has opposed attacks by Palestinian militants on Israelis during a 22-month-old uprising for independence.
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