Ha'aretz - Breaking News 8 September 2000

Assassinated Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin would never have offered
Palestinians control over parts of the Old City of Jerusalem, as Ehud Barak
has done, said Rabin's widow in remarks published Friday.Ha'aretz: Leah Rabin slams Barak for Jerusalem concessions

Ha'aretz - Breaking News 8 September 2000

Assassinated Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin would never have offered
Palestinians control over parts of the Old City of Jerusalem, as Ehud Barak
has done, said Rabin's widow in remarks published Friday. "Yitzhak is
spinning in his grave," Leah Rabin told the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper.

Rabin's widow's remarks were likely to inspire Israeli hard-liners opposed
to Prime Minister Ehud Barak's proposed concessions to the Palestinians. In
1995 Rabin was gunned down by an opponent of his peace policies. Rabin was
the first Israeli prime minister to shake the hand of Palestinian leader
Yasser Arafat who had been reviled as a terrorist until he signed an interim
peace accord with Rabin's government in 1993.

Barak reportedly offered Arafat sovereignty in Arab neighborhoods and
control of Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem, while Israel would have
sovereignty on the Temple Mount. Leah Rabin said concessions on Jerusalem
were taboo for her late husband who fought in the 1948 War of Independence
when Israeli forces lost the Old City and its Jewish residents were taken
captive. "He was thankful that in 1967 he was the army chief of staff who
liberated it," she said.

Leah Rabin criticized the way Barak is handling the negotiations, and said
Barak should not have started crucial talks with the Palestinians before
repairing his strained personal relationship with Arafat. She said the peace
process Rabin started was designed to build trust and good will, but that
has not happened.

Despite Barak's claims, she said, he is not Rabin's spiritual successor. "He
(Yitzhak Rabin) would not have made concessions on the Temple Mount and the
Old City," she said. Leah Rabin ridiculed Arafat's reported offer of Israeli
sovereignty in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City and Palestinian rule over
the rest of Jerusalem, including Muslim, Christian and Jewish holy sites.