January 23, 2001 Arabs Say No to Jewish Homeland – State of Israel
The connection between Palestinian violence and their bargaining stance at the conference table is somehow missed by the Barak government’s senior negotiators, although by no one else.
At the intensive negotiations broken off at Taba Tuesday Jan 23, after the Tulkarm murders, three ministers, Amnon Shahak, Shlomo Ben Ami and Yossi Bailin, offered the Palestinians joint administration of Jerusalem’s shrines including the Western Wall of Temple Mount. Barak explained: “Israeli sovereignty will stay, but we have to consider the sensitivities of the three important religious and accept joint administration of the holy places.”
In other words, the Barak government not only gives up Temple Mount but is willing to share jurisdiction over the Wailing Wall; it accepts the Moslem Waqf’s (religious council) full control of Temple Mount and its restriction of the Jewish right of “access” to the 48 meters of the Wailing Wall.
Yet even this was turned down by the Palestinian side at Taba.
Source: Debka file