Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak said Friday he was willing to make peace with Palestinian children throwing stones, if negotiations failed to reach a deal with their leader Yasser Arafat, AFP reported Friday.
"The Palestinians will always be there, they will not go up in smoke," Barak told Israel's biggest daily Yediot Aharonot.
"If it is impossible to make peace with Yasser Arafat, then we will do so with children who are today throwing stones," Barak told the agency.
Barak broadly sketched out his vision of an interim agreement with the Palestinians yesterday - a sketch that was quickly dismissed by senior Palestinian officials as not going far enough, said the Jerusalem Post Friday.
Under this plan, Israel would annex certain settlement blocs - for instance at Ariel and Gush Etzion - and in exchange cede another 10 percent of the territories and “grant” the Palestinians “recognition of statehood.”
“This land,” Barak said, would grant the Palestinians contiguity "so that they don't have to go through so many roadblocks." At the same time, Barak added, the issue of Jerusalem and the refugee issue would be pushed off to be dealt with at a later date, between one to three years from now, said the paper.
Previously, Fateh called on Palestinians to break through Israeli forces’ checkpoints today and march to Jerusalem to pray at Al Aqsa Mosque on the first Friday of the Moslem holy month of Ramadan, reported the daily.
"If they will keep the closure and prevent Moslems from praying at Al-Aqsa during Ramadan, there will be problems," the paper quoted Hussein Sheikh, a Fateh leader from the West Bank on Thursday.
“The political establishment decided that entry for prayers at the Temple Mount tomorrow will be permitted for all Jerusalem citizens with identity cards without age restriction. Entrance from the territories into Jerusalem will not be allowed," the paper cited a police statement issued on Thursday.
The daily added that the Israeli army was also reported to be on high alert, but “has not” deployed additional troops in the West Bank, where the blockade imposed on villages remains intact.
Meanwhile, Three thousand Israeli police were deployed in east Jerusalem Friday to deal with potential unrest as the first weekly prayers of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan began, police said.
The compound is the third holiest site in the Islamic world, and thousands of men, women and children began pouring in Friday to begin prayers. Despite the flow, the situation was calm at midday, an AFP correspondent at the scene said.
Friday has been a standing "day of rage" since a Palestinian uprising against Israel broke out in late September, and Israeli authorities fear greater unrest now that Ramadan has begun.
Men under the age of 45 were barred from entering Al Aqsa Mosque, yet Israeli forces have lifted the age restriction on people carrying the Israeli ID, reported Al Jazirah Channel Friday -- (Several Sources)
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