Negotiations over Jerusalem are taking place, a Palestinian leader claims.
Hatem Abdel Qader, the Jerusalem affairs adviser to Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salaam Fayad, told the Jerusalem Post that Jerusalem is under negotiation, despite the fact that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Tuesday during a news conference in Germany that the Palestinians have agreed to delay talks on Jerusalem until the end of the negotiations.
The religious Shas Party has said it will leave the government when negotiations over Jerusalem begin.
Shas leader Eli Yishai plans to meet with Olmert upon his return from Germany to clarify whether negotiations on Jerusalem have begun and to learn more about meetings on Monday and Tuesday between the chief negotiators, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and former P.A. Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia. Yishai learned about the meetings from news reports.
Olmert and Livni had promised to keep Yishai up to date on the negotiations in order to keep Shas in the government.
Nir Barkat, an opposition member in Jerusalem’s City Council, told JTA he sent Livni a letter demanding to know what was being discussed and warning that she has no mandate to negotiate away parts of Israel’s capital.
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