Foreign Minister Shimon Peres reiterated this week that when and if an agreement is reached with Syria on the Golan Heights, it would be submitted for a referendum to the Israeli public.
He also said the Golan could not be compared to Jerusalem, which is the “heart of Jewish life” and would never be divided.
He said there was no place for Palestinian sovereignty over Palestinian parts of Jerusalem. “Jerusalem is politically closed and religiously open,” he said Tuesday during a briefing of reporters from the Diaspora Jewish media.
He expressed similar views a day earlier, via a satellite briefing at the Israeli Consulate in New York for the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.
With regard to the Golan, Peres said, “I don’t know if the Golan is ours or not. At least two times (in the past) the government said it is not ours.”
The foreign minister said he believed that support for the peace process among Diaspora Jews is increasing every day.
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