60% say no to Jerusalem deal

JERUSALEM – More than 60 per cent of Israelis oppose sharing sovereignty over Jerusalem with the Palestinians as part of a final peace deal, in a poll published yesterday.

Asked if Israel should agree to ‘any sort of compromise on Jerusalem’ as part of a final deal, 63 per cent said no, compared with 21 who said yes, according to the poll published in the mass-selling Yediot Aharonot daily. Sixty-eight per cent oppose transferring Arab neighbourhoods in occupied east Jerusalem to Palestinian sovereignty, compared with 20 per cent who are in favour.Asked who should have sovereignty over the holy places in the Old City, 61 per cent said Israel alone, 21 per cent favoured international sovereignty, and 16 per cent supported joint Israeli-Palestinian sovereignty.On whether Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s government has a mandate from the public to reach a permanent status arrangement on Jerusalem, 52 per cent said yes on condition that 80 MPs in the 120-seat parliament supported such a move.Only 10 per cent said yes outright, and 22 per cent said yes on condition that a national referendum approves the measure.The poll was conducted by the Dahaf Institute, but the date, sample size and margin of error were not given.Israel captured Arab east Jerusalem, including the Old City with its sites holy to Christianity, Islam and Judaism, during the 1967 Six Day war and later annexed it.In 1980, the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, passed a law proclaiming it the “reunified and eternal capital of Israel”, a claim not recognised by the international community.The issue of Jerusalem – which Palestinians demand as the capital of their promised state – is one of the most sensitive and intractable of the decades-old Middle East conflict.Nampa-AFPSixty-eight per cent oppose transferring Arab neighbourhoods in occupied east Jerusalem to Palestinian sovereignty, compared with 20 per cent who are in favour.Asked who should have sovereignty over the holy places in the Old City, 61 per cent said Israel alone, 21 per cent favoured international sovereignty, and 16 per cent supported joint Israeli-Palestinian sovereignty.On whether Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s government has a mandate from the public to reach a permanent status arrangement on Jerusalem, 52 per cent said yes on condition that 80 MPs in the 120-seat parliament supported such a move.Only 10 per cent said yes outright, and 22 per cent said yes on condition that a national referendum approves the measure.The poll was conducted by the Dahaf Institute, but the date, sample size and margin of error were not given.Israel captured Arab east Jerusalem, including the Old City with its sites holy to Christianity, Islam and Judaism, during the 1967 Six Day war and later annexed it.In 1980, the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, passed a law proclaiming it the “reunified and eternal capital of Israel”, a claim not recognised by the international community.The issue of Jerusalem – which Palestinians demand as the capital of their promised state – is one of the most sensitive and intractable of the decades-old Middle East conflict.Nampa-AFP