Begin firm on Jerusalem

Press, 13 August 1980, Page 8

Begin firm on Jerusalem

NZPA-Reuter Jerusalem The Israeli Prime Minister (Mr Menachem Begin) in his message last week to President Anwar Sadat reaffirmed that a united Jerusalem must remain the eternal capital of Israel and that Jewish settlements on the occupied West Bank would never be uprooted.

Mr Begin’s office released the full text of his 15-page message which made plain that Jerusalem could not be a subject for negotiation in any resumed session of talks on Palestinian autonomy. The letter was in response to an earlier message from President Sadat asking for assurances that Israel’s new Jerusalem bill did not mean the holy city was from now on barred from discussion. The bill, passed overwhelmingly by the Knesset (Parliament) two weeks ago, legally enshrined Israel’s hold on Arab East Jerusalem.

The first two pages of .Mr Begin’s letter were devoted to courtesies about ' the search for peace. The following pages moved on to query, in mild tone, Mr Sadat’s versions: of: various- conversations ■ between the two lead-

ers during the last year. \ From there Mr Begin started chiding Mr Sadat about Egyptian support for antiIsraeli United Nations resolutions and about unfriendly statements made by Egyptian officials and press. ! Turning- to Jerusalem, Mr Begin -said two sovereignties in,one city would amount to partition. ' '

“Impossible. Jerusalem is and will be one, under Israeli sovereignty, its indivisible capital in which Jews and Arabs will dwell together in peace and in human dignity. Whoever declares that the sovereign acts of a democratic Parliament are null and void makes a declaration that is itself null and void,” he said.

“The same applies to our settlements in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank), the Gaza district and the Golan Heights. They are legal and legitimate and they are an integral part of our national security. None of them will ever be removed.”

A main .sticking point .in the autonomy talks has been Israel’s refusal to entertain the Egyptian demand for Jerusalem’s ; 100,000 Arabs to be given the same autonomy as that, proposed for Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza.

Since they started in May, 1979, the autonomy talks have made no substantial progress. Israel has declined to allow the Palestinians of the occupied zones more than purely local administrative autonomy.

In New York, Islamic countries, angry over Israel’s designation of Jerusalem as its capital, agreed yesterday to put Israel on three months notice to rescind the law or face sanctions, diplomatic sources said. In an earlier draft resolution for the United Nations Security Council, they proposed that all nations impose an immediate economic and military embargo.

The 40-nation Islamic Conference was expected formally to approve the revised text, with the probability that the council would take up the Jerusalem question in the next few days, possibly as early as today.