The Knesset law committee approved Monday a bill for a basic law that would prevent the government from handing disputed east Jerusalem over to the Palestinians.
The bill bars "the transfer of control over (Israeli) sovereign territory in Jerusalem to a foreign power," a parliamentary source said.
The fate of Jerusalem is one of the toughest issues under negotiation by Israel and the Palestinians. Israel captured the city's eastern sector from Jordan in the 1967 Middle East war and subsequently annexed it.
Israel's official position, in defiance of UN resolutions, is that east Jerusalem will remain part of its united capital of Jerusalem. The Palestinians say the eastern sector must be the capital of a future Palestinian state.
But during the July summit at Camp David, Maryland, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, who lacks a majority in the Knesset, agreed to the concept of sharing sovereignty over east Jerusalem.
Barak's left-wing Labor Party proposed an amendment that would ensure that the bill, if it becomes law, "will not block negotiations on municipal arrangements for Jerusalem" and that it must not harm "an international agreement approved by the Knesset," or parliament.
The Knesset would have to approve the bill three times for it to become law. Since measure would have the designation of basic law, it would take an absolute majority of 61 of the 120 members of parliament to cancel it.
The Knesset committee voted 4-2 to back the bill, with representatives of right-wing and religious parties supporting it while those from Barak's Labor Party and the leftist Meretz Party were opposed.
The Knesset, which is in recess, will reconvene at the end of October with a move to bring about early elections high on the agenda – JERUSALEM (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
