RAMALLAH: An Israeli Foreign Ministry official said that the Israeli government plans to transfer ownership of the land on which Jerusalem's St. Sergius Church stands, to Russia in the coming weeks, the local daily Jerusalem Post reported yesterday.
The issue, which has been under negotiation since then-Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed the site in Jerusalem's Russian Compound and others nearby as property of the Russian Orthodox Church four years ago, is extremely delicate as Israel is concerned over the precedent that might be set for other churches' properties in the capital, the report said. For example, the Greek Orthodox Church owns the land on which the Knesset and the prime minister's residence are located.
"I believe that this move represents a dangerous precedent of transferring properties in the heart of Jerusalem and is in violation of the city's interest, since this is not the only property being contested by foreign sources," opposition leader and Jerusalem mayoral candidate Nir Barkat wrote in a letter to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Tuesday.
The prime minister's office also denied yesterday a report that he offered Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas the absorption of 20,000 refugees inside Israel in the next ten years as part of "shelf agreement" between the two sides.
Yasser Abed Rabbo, the secretary-general of PLO's Executive Committee, said that the Palestinians "reject this offer." "The acceptance of this offer will make it the ceiling of our demands", Abed Rabbo told the Voice of Palestine Radio. He added "this offer is not for implementation rather than lowering the ceiling of Palestinians' rights and demands."
