Labor supports dividing Jerusalem

Platform to be presented Sunday backs giving up the Muslim neighborhoods.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
jerusalem issawiya 298 (photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
jerusalem issawiya 298
(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
In its new campaign platform, the Labor Party supports giving up Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem in a final deal with the Palestinians, a Labor lawmaker said Friday. The platform, to be officially presented Sunday, will state that Labor backs a "united Jerusalem consisting of its Jewish neighborhoods," lawmaker Yuli Tamir told The Associated Press. "This is a statement that we are willing to give up the Muslim neighborhoods of Jerusalem in order to strengthen the Jewish majority." According to a poll published Thursday, six out of 10 Israeli Jews would be willing to give up Arab neighborhoods in east Jerusalem as part of a final peace deal with the Palestinians, but few would give up the Old City, site of Judaism's holiest shrine, the Western Wall. The new platform marked the first time that a mainstream Israeli party said as part of campaign that it would be willing to give up parts of Jerusalem.