Netanyahu Expected To Shut Palestinian Building
In a move that seemed to signal an early policy shift by the incoming Israeli government, Jerusalem’s mayor said Saturday he expects Prime Minister-elect Benjamin Netanyahu to move quickly to close the unofficial Palestinian headquarters here.
Mayor Ehud Olmert, a key Netanyahu ally in the right-wing Likud Party, said the new prime minister is likely to follow through on a campaign promise to shutter Orient House, the center of Palestinian political and cultural activity in Jerusalem. “I believe that this commitment will be fulfilled,” Olmert told Israeli Army Radio.
The statement, which seemed likely to heighten anxiety among Palestinians about the future of the Mideast peace process, was greeted with alarm Saturday by a top adviser to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
“This is an unneeded provocation,” said Dr. Ahmad Tibi, an Arab citizen of Israel who is Arafat’s adviser on Israeli affairs. “I hope (Netanyahu) will be responsible enough not to follow such radical proposals from his Likud Party.”
Orient House, a graceful 19th century building on a quiet street in mostly Arab East Jerusalem, is a potent symbol to Israelis and Palestinians alike; as the Palestinian leadership’s most visible presence here, it represents the community’s aspirations for control of at least part of this long-disputed city.
The Israeli parliament, or Knesset, has specifically banned all official activities in Jerusalem by the selfgoverning Palestinian Authority, but foreign dignitaries, ostensibly holding only nonsubstantive meetings, regularly meet top Palestinian officials at Orient House. The meetings sometimes draw crowds of Israeli protesters angry at the apparent flouting of at least the spirit of Israeli law.
Prime Minister Shimon Peres, the Labor Party leader defeated by Netanyahu in last week’s election, had resisted calls by Likud leaders to close the building, which serves as the headquarters for Palestinian peace negotiators.
Netanyahu is expected to make his first detailed public comments since the election in a victory speech tonight that will spell out his policies on security and the future of the peace process with the Palestinians and neighboring Arab states.
During the campaign, the Likud leader indicated that he would stop or at least slow the pace of negotiations and strongly criticized Peres’ policy of trading land for peace. Netanyahu pledged instead to make security his top concern, effectively playing to the fears of Israelis shaken by a series of suicide bombings by Islamic militants in February and March.
Netanyahu has said he plans to strengthen Jewish settlements in the West Bank, to allow Israeli troops to re-enter areas now under Palestinian control and may cancel the planned withdrawal of soldiers from Hebron, the last major West Bank city still under Israeli control.
Tonight’s speech by the 46-year-old Netanyahu, considered a master of the sound bite and Israel’s first “American-style” politician, is timed to coincide with Israeli television’s widely watched evening news programs.
Netanyahu also is expected to begin formal negotiations today on putting together his government coalition with small moderate and religious parties. Speculation was intense Saturday among political analysts and television commentators about which leading Likud figures might be offered positions in the new government, with hard-line retired Gens. Ariel Sharon and Rafael Eitan among those mentioned.
On Saturday, Netanyahu spent the Jewish Sabbath quietly, visiting with friends and eating lunch with his family at a Jerusalem hotel.
In the Gaza Strip, meanwhile, Palestinian leaders said they will cooperate with the new Israeli prime minister but also expect him to honor commitments made by the Peres government.
In a statement released early Saturday after a lengthy meeting on the results of Wednesday’s vote, members of Arafat’s Palestinian Cabinet appealed to the United States and other nations to redouble their “efforts to push the peace process forward.”