Sharon calls Jews `custodians' of an indivisible Jerusalem
ASSOCIATED PRESS

JAN 14: Jerusalem belongs to the Jewish people as a whole, hawkish opposition leader Ariel Sharon said and no Israeli leader has the right to split it with the Palestinians as part of a peace deal.

Speaking yesterday to a cheering crowd of 3,000 Jewish students from abroad, Sharon - the leading contender in the upcoming Israeli election for Prime Minister - jabbed at Prime Minister Ehud Barak's peace policies.

"We here, the Jews in Israel, and you the Jews around the world, we are the custodians and we keep Jerusalem for generations to come," Sharon said. "And no one, no one, has the right to divide Jerusalem, to give up the Temple Mount, the holiest place of the Jewish people."

US President Bill Clinton's peace proposals call on Israel to cede Jerusalem's disputed Old City holy site, known to Jews as Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Haram as-Sharif, or Noble Sanctuary.

In turn, Palestinians would give up their claim to the right of return to Israel for millions of Palestinian refugees and their descendants.

It was Sharon's September 28 visit to the disputed holy site that sparked the current round of Israeli-Palestinian violence. Fighting since then has killed 365 Palestinians - 314 Palestinians, 37 Israeli Jews, 13 Israeli Arabs and a German doctor.

Sharon told the Jewish students that Israel's accomplishments were possible only because of its military strength.

Copyright © 2001 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.