Top Palestinian Official Meets with Diplomats at Orient House

The top Palestinian official in Jerusalem met this week with consular officials from 10 nations in eastern Jerusalem to express Palestinian concern over the potential policies of Prime Minister-elect Benjamin Netanyahu.

Faisal Husseini, who held the meeting at Orient House, the Palestinians’ de facto headquarters in eastern Jerusalem, told the foreign officials that he was concerned about the future of the self-rule negotiations, and in particular the future status of Jerusalem, after the defeat of Shimon Peres in the May 29 elections.

Husseini’s choice of the site for the meeting was viewed as defiant of the incoming Likud government, which wants to close Orient House.

Members of Likud and of the outgoing Labor Party say Palestinians have no right to maintain a headquarters in what Israel claims as its capital.

Jerusalem’s Likud Mayor Ehud Olmert has called for all activities at Orient House to stop.

Meanwhile, Knesset member Moshe Peled, a member of the far-right Tsomet Party, said Tuesday that he would propose legislation to close the institution when the Knesset convenes for its summer session later this month.

Since his election, Netanyahu has reiterated that he intends to continue the peace process.

But the hard-line positions he expressed during the campaign, and what has surfaced in the emerging policy guidelines of his new government, have been a source of concern for Palestinian and other Arab leaders.

Those positions include a staunch refusal to divide Jerusalem and opposition to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s second-in-command, Mahmoud Abbas, also known as Abu-Mazen, voiced the hope this week that Netanyahu would back off from those positions.

“The Palestinians hope that the declarations made by the Likud in their campaign propaganda will not form the basis for the actual policy of the government,” he said in an interview with the Israeli daily Ha’aretz.