With the blessing of Israeli authorities, Nabil Sha’ath, the chief negotiator for the Palestine Liberation Organization, visited Jerusalem last Friday.
During his visit, which occurred one day after Israeli authorities granted him permission to make the trip, Sha’ath prayed at the A1-Aksa Mosque on the Temple Mount and toured the Old City.
Sha’ath was the highest ranking Palestinian official to visit Jerusalem since the May 4 signing of the Cairo Agreement for implementing Palestinian self-rule in the Gaza Strip and West Bank enclave of Jericho.
“I am very happy, I’m euphoric,” Sha’ath, who also serves as planning minister in the Palestinian governing authority, told reporters during his visit. “I only saw it on postcards, but it was always in my dreams and in my heart.”
Israeli security officials posted an additional 50 police around the Temple Mount for Sha’ath’s visit, which proceeded without incident.
Palestinians want eastern Jerusalem as the capital of an eventual Palestinian state; Israel claims the city as its eternal and undivided capital. Under the terms of the Declaration of Principles signed by Israel and the PLO last September, the status of Jerusalem is scheduled to be negotiated in 1996.
“This is our home town. It is the most important town in the world for all of us,” Sha’ath told reporters, adding that PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat would visit Jerusalem “soon.”
Sha’ath said the last time he was in Jerusalem was in 1948, when his family fled the region upon the creation of the State of Israel.
He was escorted around Jerusalem by Faisal Husseini, a minister without portfolio in the governing authority who is in charge of Palestinian affairs in Jerusalem.
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