Jerusalem's right-wing Mayor Ehud Olmert will shift his office to the Western Wall for a week to protest any transfer to the Palestinians of sovereignty over east Jerusalem and its holy sites, his office said Tuesday.
Olmert, a stalwart of the Likud opposition party, will move his office Thursday to the wall, the holiest site in Judaism, and hold all his meetings there for a week, it said.
"This is one of a series of measures the mayor is planning to make the population aware of the dangers of transferring sovereignty over Jerusalem districts to the Palestinians and the consequences for the lives of the city's residents," a spokesman for Olmert told AFP.
"The transfer of sovereignty is a profound and historic attack on the Jewish people throughout the world. It is obvious that such a decision will prevent free movement around the Wailing Wall," he added.
Under a peace plan put forward by US President Bill Clinton, the Palestinians would have sovereignty over Arab parts of Jerusalem including the al-Aqsa mosque compound, the third holiest site in Islam that sits atop the wall and is known to Jews as Temple Mount.
Earlier this week, Olmert made a stinging attack on Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak over his reported willingness to share sovereignty with the Palestinians in the city.
In particular, Olmert accused Barak of being "the first Jew to sell off cheaply Temple Mount to another people."
The mosque complex that includes the Dome of the Rock is built on what is believed to be the site of the ancient Jewish temple of Solomon -- JERUSALEM (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
