Despite protests from Israeli government officials, a group of European Union ministers met Palestinian officials at Orient House, the Palestine liberation Organization’s headquarters in eastern Jerusalem last week.
Deputy Foreign Minister Yossi Beilin had asked the E.U. minister not to visit Orient House, but they refused. The Feb. 9 visit was then termed a “courtesy call.”
The visit to Orient House was part of an official E.U. visit to the region last week. E.U. ministers from France, Germany and Spain met with Israeli officials for a series of talks on a proposed trade agreement between Israel and the E.U.
The two sides were reported to be at odds over the terms of the free-trade agreement.
The E.U. senior diplomats had arrived from Damascus, where they held talks with Syrian President Hafez Assad and Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa on the stalled peace talks with Israel.
Palestinian official Faisal Husseini, who headed the Palestinian delegation that met the E.U. ministers, said the two sides discussed “the peace process and problems facing Jerusalem.”
Visit to Orient House by foreign diplomats have become a sensitive issue.
The Knesset recently passed a low barring the Palestinian Authority from engaging in official activities inside Israel, with a specific reference to Jerusalem.
The Israelis have said that Jerusalem will never again be divided. In the 1967 war, Israel captured eastern Jerusalem and annexed it to become part of the country’s capital.
The Palestinian want eastern Jerusalem to serve as their future capital.
Palestinian official Ziad Abu-Ziad said Orient House is the headquarters of the Palestinian peace delegation, not the Palestinian Authority.
“I don’t understand why the Israelis made a big fuss about this meeting,” he told Israel Radio. “This kind of thing was happening in the past, and the Israeli government accepted it. I don’t understand why now, under pressure from the right wing in Israel, the Israeli government is surrendering to the right wing making an issue out of this thing.”
“Israel and the Palestinians are due to being negotiations on the final status of Jerusalem in 1996.
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