Barkat: Plan agreed on dividing J'lem

JPost.com Staff , THE JERUSALEM POST Feb. 13, 2008
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"Vice Premier Haim Ramon and PA negotiator Mohammad Rashid have agreed on a
plan to divide Jerusalem," Jerusalem municipal opposition leader Nir Barkat
said Wednesday, following a letter he received from Foreign Minister Tzipi
Livni.

Livni was answering Barkat's request that she respond to the Jerusalem Post
report about secret negotiations on the future of capital.

Barkat, a former Kadima member, has led a public campaign against the
proposed division of the capital. On January 22, he said that a decision to
freeze building in east Jerusalem would make Prime Minister Ehud Olmert the
first Israeli prime minister since the end of the British mandate in 1948 to
enact 'a White Paper' for the capital, a reference to the infamous 1939
British policy which limited Jewish immigration to Palestine.

In her letter, Livni wrote: "At Annapolis, it was agreed that Israel and the
Palestinians would conduct negotiations on all the core issues without
exception.
"The negotiations between the Israeli and Palestinian delegations are being
conducted with agreement from both sides that until there is an accord on
every issue there will be no accord on any issue and that the contents of
the negotiations must not be disclosed."

She said that from past experience, Israel had learned that conducting
negotiations "under the floodlights" will not contribute to Israel's goals
and that "for this reason, and this reason only, I have neither related to
reports about agreements seemingly reached during negotiations and nor will
I do so in the future."

"You cannot conclude anything from my lack of response and the absence of a
denial is not any form of confirmation," stressed the foreign minister.

Following the foreign minister's response, Barkat said: "Livni's letter
exposes more than anything the fraudulent peace process led by Ramon and the
prime minister. Livni refuses to reveal the vital information she knows, of
which I was informed by senior officials, that there is a secret channel led
by Haim Ramon and Mohammad Rashid and not by the Foreign Ministry."

Barkat went on to say that the fact that Livni was aware of the reported
secret channel and refused to admit it to the public "turns her into an
active partner in the fraudulent peace process of which the true aim is to
divide Jerusalem."

Ramon denied the report, saying Barkat's claims were "absurd and unfounded."