By Hoda Tawfik and Khaled Amayreh The UN Security Council is considering a request by the Palestine Liberation Organisation for a formal meeting on a plan by Israel to expand Jerusalem's boundaries, the Council's president announced. "I have already started consultations and hope to be able to inform the Council [about the outcome] before the end of this week," Council president Antonio Monteiro of Portugal told reporters. The request was made by the PLO's UN observer, Nasser Al-Kidwa, in a letter to Monteiro, saying the Israeli plan "aims at strengthening Israel's illegal hold on Jerusalem." "This is a concrete step towards the illegal annexation of more occupied Palestinian land to the already illegally expanded Jerusalem municipality," Al-Kidwa said. Nabil El-Arabi, Egypt's UN ambassador, told Al-Ahram Weekly that Arab states were consulting with the big powers on an Arab draft resolution to be presented to the Council. Meanwhile, a Clinton administration official said the US was opposed to any such move. "We do not encourage any move to bring peace process issues to the Security Council," the official told the Weekly. "Such a move does not help ongoing American efforts with Israel. It does not help the process." The Americans appear to have toned down their criticism of the Israeli plan which aims at expanding the area of Jerusalem, now estimated at 100 square kilometres, to nearly 600 square kilometres. The plan will not stop Washington from continuing to discuss and negotiate with Israel in an attempt to break the deadlock in regional peace-making, a senior US official told the Weekly. "The US is convinced that any unilateral action that is perceived to undermine the status of a sensitive and key issue prior to negotiations undermines the basis of the process," the official said. "And yet, the US initiative is still alive and under discussion with the Israelis." The US official's comment came after Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu conveyed clarifications to the Clinton administration of the Israeli cabinet's decision. Asked by the Weekly if the US was satisfied with the clarifications, the official responded: "Well, we are friends and allies. We listened to what he had to say, but that does not change our position, that anything that is done on a final status issue at this point is not helpful." Analysts noted that the US appears to have toned down its criticism of the Israeli decision. Initially, the State Department accused Israel of taking a provocative step at a sensitive time in negotiations. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright had told Netanyahu that "the Israeli decision is viewed as something that was not helpful to the peace process because in this very delicate environment unilateral actions are not the kind that are helpful." State Department spokesman James Rubin said that such a provocative step was unfathomable to the US. It would be wiser to wait and get the peace process back on track, so that these issues can be fully addressed, the spokesman said. The Israeli plan drew condemnation from Foreign Minister Amr Moussa, the Arab League and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Moussa, who arrived in Riyadh on Tuesday for a meeting of a joint Egyptian-Saudi Arabian committee, said the Israeli plan was illegal and violated the principles of international law and the Geneva conventions. Arab League Secretary-General Esmat Abdel-Meguid described the Israeli decision as "extremely serious" and accused Netanyahu of "wiping his feet on signed peace accords." The League called for a meeting on the issue today of the permanent representatives of its 22 members. Annan said the Israeli decision infringed upon numerous General Assembly and Security Council resolutions on the status of Jerusalem. The Israeli plan will make the boundaries of Greater Jerusalem contiguous with the Arab town of Ramallah in the north, the Hebron plateau in the south, the Jordan Valley in the east and the Palestinian coastal plains in the west. In all, the authority of Greater Jerusalem will encompass as much as a quarter of the entire area of the West Bank, dashing any Palestinian hope for the establishment of an independent state on the West Bank, even without Jerusalem as its capital. At a news conference on Sunday, Netanyahu sought to downplay the political implications of the plan, claiming it was primarily motivated by the wish to improve services and increase the efficiency of taxation. He also dodged questions about the incorporation of several West Bank settlements east of Jerusalem, such as Ma'ali Adomim and Givat Zeive, into the city's municipal authority. But Netanyahu did point out that the strategic goal behind the "master plan" was to consolidate Jewish predominance in Jerusalem by "guaranteeing an absolute Jewish majority of at least 70 per cent in Jerusalem for 20 years to come." He said the state would spend hundreds of millions of dollars to build the necessary infrastructure, including as many as 80,000 flats or housing units, colleges and hi-tech industries. Another undeclared but obvious target is to cut the West Bank into two separate parts, northern and southern, lacking territorial continuity. Shredding the West Bank into two separate enclaves will make it utterly unfit and unviable for a state worthy of the name. Surprisingly, the Palestinian reaction was not as harsh as expected. Planning Minister Nabil Shaath described the plan as a "unilateral and one-sided measure that would corrode the peace process." The weak Palestinian reaction, some pundits opined, reflected mounting frustration with the deadlock in the peace process as well as America's unwillingness to put pressure on Israel. In another development, the US declared support for a referendum on an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank but said that it preferred that such a plebiscite be held soon. "We prefer this sooner rather than later," said a State Department official, who requested anonymity. Israeli Television reported that the referendum was likely to take place in mid-September. Israel has yet to agree to a US plan proposed months ago for a second redeployment from at least 13 per cent of the West Bank's total area in exchange for Palestinian security measures. Opinion polls show that most Israelis support additional pullbacks. The UN General Assembly was expected to vote tomorrow on a draft resolution that would give the PLO, "in its capacity as observer, similar rights and privileges of participation, with the exception of voting and candidature, for various UN bodies and posts." El-Arabi told the Weekly the resolution does not elevate the PLO's status to that of a state. Israel and the US oppose the move, but it has widespread support in the General Assembly, where Washington does not have veto power.
