Israel proposed to annex 6.8 percent of the West Bank
and to take in a few thousand refugees under a peace deal, but it has
not revealed its position on the most contentious issue — the future of
Jerusalem, the chief Palestinian negotiators said Friday night.
Ahmed
Qureia said the Palestinian side did not consider the ideas presented
on annexation and the return of some Palestinians to be acceptable.
Speaking
for the first time in detail about yearlong U.S.-backed talks that
failed to produce an agreement, Qureia's comments appeared aimed, in
part, at providing a record of the Israeli position ahead of leadership
changes in Israel and the United States.
Barack Obama assumes the U.S. presidency Jan. 20. Israel holds elections Feb. 10, and polls suggest hard-line opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu could become the next prime minister.
Netanyahu
opposes large-scale territorial concessions to the Palestinians and has
said he would not continue the negotiations in their current format. He
says he would try to focus on improving the Palestinian economy instead.
The office of outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert
declined to address Qureia's comments. However, aides noted recent
speeches in which Olmert said Israel would have to withdraw from much
of the land it captured in the 1967 Mideast War, including the West
Bank and parts of Jerusalem.
Qureia
told Palestinian reporters that Israel wants to keep four blocs of
Jewish settlements in the West Bank — Ariel, Maaleh Adumim, Givat Zeev
and Efrat-Gush Etzion. He said Israel initially proposed to annex 7.3
percent of the territory, then reduced that to 6.8 percent.
Israel
offered to give some of its own territory as compensation, but not an
equal trade in size and quality, Qureia said. He added that some of the
areas Israel wants to annex would be crucial to a viable Palestinian
state envisioned as the goal of the peace negotiations.
Israeli
officials have talked publicly about keeping some settlements in
exchange for other land, but have not given any specifics. Qureia has
said in the past the Palestinians are willing to consider a land swap,
but on a much smaller scale than he outlined Friday.
Turning
to Jerusalem, Qureia said the Palestinians repeatedly raised their
demand for a division of the city but were never given Israel's view.
Olmert,
who will step down after the elections, has said Israel will have to
give up some Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem. However, the
ultra-Orthodox Jewish Shas Party, a member of Olmert's governing
coalition, has threatened to quit if Jerusalem is discussed in the
talks.
Qureia said Olmert's offer during talks to take in 5,000 Palestinian refugees
over five years was rejected. But he added that the Palestinians do not
seek the return of all refugees and their descendants, a group that
numbers several million.
"To say that
not a single refugee would be allowed back or that all the refugees
should be allowed back is not a solution," he said. "We should reach a
mutual position on this issue."
Israeli
leaders have adamantly refused to accept large numbers of Palestinians,
saying mass repatriation would destroy the Jewish character of Israel.
The
negotiations were launched a year ago, at a U.S.-hosted Mideast
conference in Annapolis, Md. Since then, Qureia and Livni have met
repeatedly, in parallel to talks between Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Qureia said he hopes the new American president will make solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict a priority. "We hope that we will not have to wait" for intensive U.S. involvement, he said.
