_a.jpg "Photo: Eli Elgarat")
Schneller. In the middle
Photo: Eli Elgarat
Hasson. Referendum
Photo: Haim Zach
Elkin. Damage to the party
Olmert. Absent
Photo: Moshe Milner, GPO
Livni. 'All issues on the table'
Photo: AP
Kadima MKs discuss Jerusalem without Olmert
As prime minister continues his official visit to Japan, his faction's members take advantage of his absence to express their objection to negotiations on capital
Eleven Kadima
Knesset members met Monday afternoon at the Knesset to discuss the diplomatic negotiations and their fear of talks with the Palestinians on the future of Jerusalem.
The MKs, who had apparently taken advantage of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's
trip to Japan, suggested that the party's institutions discuss "any change in Kadima's platform."
Most of the meeting attendees expressed their absolute objection to a division of the capital and even to discussions on its future.
Jerusalem Controversy
Associated Press
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat says no agreement to exclude or delay talks on Jerusalem
MK Yoel Hasson even suggested that if Israel reached a diplomatic agreement with the Palestinians, the prime minister would be obligated to present the agreement to the public and receive its approval through elections or a referendum.
"Kadima's platform is our road map and we must not deviate from it," Hasson said. "The platform speaks about a united Jerusalem under Israeli sovereignty. Those who say otherwise are causing damage to Kadima."
MK David Tal added that "Jerusalem cannot be touched, and making concessions on this issue are not part of Kadima's platform. When the public elected us, it did not know that we plan to make concessions in Jerusalem."
'Jerusalem belongs to the Jewish people'
MK Otniel Schneller said that "Kadima is neither Geneva (the Geneva Initiative – a joint Israeli-Palestinian agreement) nor the Labor Party. We are in the middle, on the Jerusalem issue as well."We shall not agree to lose the Holy Basin. I accept the foundation of a Palestinian state, and I can consider conceding a number of isolated neighborhoods, but Jerusalem belongs to the Jewish people."
Schneller suggested that every agreement regarding Jerusalem would be "brought to the entire Jewish people in a referendum."
MK Zeev Elkin, one of the discussion's initiator, noted that "those who make assumptions which are different from the Kadima platform are causing damage to the party. I object to the talks on the core issues before terror ceases. Jerusalem is not a tactical issue and not a procedural issue."
The Kadima MKs' discussion was held following Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni's recent remark that all issues "are on the table" as part of the negotiations with the Palestinians.
