By Ryan Jones
Nov 14, 2005
With many world leaders in Jerusalem this week to mark 10 years since the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin and discuss prospects for regional peace, the "Palestinians" have worked to ensure that these dignitaries all know that the Arab-Israeli conflict will not end until the PLO flag flies over the ancient Jewish capital.
Chief ?Palestinian? negotiator Saeb Erekat was quoted by the PLO-controlled news agency WAFA as saying a solution on Jerusalem in line with current Arab demands was necessary for lasting peace.
Erekat insisted it was illegal for Israel to impose its law on the city which, he said, the international community views as occupied territory.
Jerusalem has had a Jewish majority since long before Israel?s rebirth in 1948. From the time the biblical King David declared it his capital more than 3000 years ago, the city has had this status in the heart of all Jews. Until the Palestinian Arabs began laying claim to it after 1967, no other nation ever designated Jerusalem the capital of their empire or state.
Following the 1967 reunification of the city under Jewish rule for the first time in over 2,000 years, Israel vowed Jerusalem would remain its united capital forever.
PLO chief Mahmoud Abbas, meanwhile, pledged during a ceremony marking the anniversary of Yasser Arafat's death last Friday to ?continue on the path that [Arafat] started and exert whatever efforts are needed to raise the flag of Palestine on the walls, the minarets and the churches of Jerusalem.?
Arafat often swore that untold numbers of his Arabs were willing to ?martyr? themselves in order to ensure the achievement of this goal.