Abbas: In talks, Israel has proposed concessions regarding Jerusalem

By DPA Last update - 18:49 11/11/2008
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1036405.html

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Tuesday that during peace talks
over the past year, Israel had proposed concessions to him regarding
Jerusalem, but he rejected them because they were partial.

Abbas told tens of thousands of Palestinians who gathered at his Ramallah
headquarters to mark four years since the death of the late Palestinian
leader Yasser Arafat that he wants a full peace deal and will accept no
partial one.

"We rejected Israeli proposals that stipulated making concessions including
on Jerusalem and the refugees," he said.

"We either get all six points - Jerusalem, settlements, borders, refugees,
water and security - or nothing at all," Abbas said.

The Palestinian leader added that he had made his position clear during a
meeting Sunday with the Quartet of Middle East peace mediators - the United
States, European Union, United Nations and Russia - in Egypt.

Israel has consistently insisted in recent months that the sides had not yet
touched on the issue of Jerusalem, although it had agreed "in principle" to
include it in the negotiations. Outgoing prime minister Ehud Olmert had
promised ultra-Orthodox coalition partners in the past that negotiations on
Jerusalem would be left for last.

Abbas has rejected his offer for a peace deal that would sideline the highly
sensitive issue and leave it for later, arguing that partial peace
agreements have thus far not yielded any progress toward statehood for the
Palestinians.

Abbas strongly attacked the Islamic movement Hamas, at one point calling
them "traitors."

Abbas also accused Hamas, the bitter rival of his and Arafat's more secular
Fatah movement, of having undermined efforts to achieve "national
reconciliation" by refusing to attend Egyptian-hosted talks which had been
scheduled to start in Cairo on Monday, but were canceled when Hamas
announced a last minute boycott of the talks.

He said he was ready to hold presidential and legislative elections
immediately, calling on Hamas to accept this proposal.

Abbas charged Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, used force to prevent
Gazans from marking the anniversary of Arafat's death.

Pro-Fatah Palestinian media also said Hamas forces, both in civilian clothes
and military uniforms, had deployed across Gaza to prevent any gathering of
Fatah supporters trying to commemorate Arafat's death. They said they also
entered schools and "beat up" a number of pupils who wore Arafat's trademark
kaffiyeh.

Tens of thousands of Fatah supporters flocked to the Ramallah compound,
which contains Arafat's mausoleum and tomb, since the early hours of
Tuesday, carrying yellow Fatah flags and portraits of their late leader.

Arafat died at a hospital in France in November 2004 at the age of 75 of a
stroke triggered by a blood-clotting disorder brought on by food poisoning.

Although his French hospital record published by The New York Times said no
traces of commonly used poisons were found in his system and his liver and
kidneys were not damaged as is common after poisoning, Arafat's nephew
insisted on Tuesday that Israel was behind the late Palestinian leader's
death, and that the type of poison and method used by Israel would soon be
revealed.