A vast majority of Israelis will not accept a peace deal that involves handing any part of east Jerusalem to the Palestinians, according to an opinion poll published Friday.
Seventy percent of respondents to a poll by Israel's top-selling daily newspaper Yediot Aharonot said they opposed any deal to end their decades-old conflict with the Palestinians that involved giving up land in occupied east Jerusalem.
Only 27 percent of the 525 Israelis surveyed said that a final peace deal with the Palestinians was worth handing over "any part" of east Jerusalem.
Israel occupied east Jerusalem,the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the 1967 Middle East war and its fate is one of the most difficult issues being discussed at the Camp David peace summit.
Israeli cabinet minister Michael Melchior told public radio Friday that Prime Minister Ehud Barak backed a US proposal for joint Israeli-Palestinian sovereignty over parts of east Jerusalem.
Sixty one percent of Israelis said they did not think that a "true peace" could be achieved with the Palestinians, according to the poll, which has a 4.5 percent margin of error.
Israelis were split on Barak's performance at the Camp David summit with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, with 10 percent describing it as very good, 14 percent as very bad, 39 percent as good and 30 percent as poor.
Barak is leading the negotiations without a parliamentary majority following the defection of three right-wing and religious parties from his year-old coalition government - OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
