Ex-PM: Give up on trying to unify Jerusalem

JERUSALEM [2] -- Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert [3] urged Israeli leaders Sunday to relinquish the idea of a unified Jerusalem if they truly want peace, contending in interviews that years of government neglect have kept the Jewish and Arab sectors irreparably divided.

"No Israeli government since 1967 has done even a smidgen of what was needed in order to unify the city in practical terms," Olmert told the newspaper Maariv. "That is a tragedy that is going to lead us, for want of another choice, to making inevitable political concessions."

The comments, made as Israel marked the 45th anniversary of capturing east Jerusalem [4], were nearly unprecedented for a mainstream Israeli leader and put Olmert at odds with his successor, Benjamin Netanyahu [5].

Netanyahu declared his government was committed to keeping it the country's undivided capital. The Palestinians hope to make east Jerusalem the capital of an independent state, including the neighboring West Bank and Gaza [6] Strip.

After seizing east Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East [7] war, Israel immediately annexed the area, home to sensitive Jewish, Christian and Muslim holy sites as well as a large Arab population. Speaking Sunday night from the site of a Jerusalem battle from that war, Netanyahu said the city will not be partitioned.

"Israel without Jerusalem is like a body without a heart. And our heart will never be divided again," he said.

Olmert said the notion of a united Holy City is unrealistic. He pointed to a number of Arab neighborhoods in east Jerusalem, saying they have not been integrated into the rest of the city.

"We can't unite them and connect them to the real fabric of life in Jerusalem," he said.

As mayor from 1993 to 2003, Olmert was an outspoken hard-liner. But, while prime minister from 2006 to 2009, he pursued a peace agreement envisioning broad territorial concessions before a corruption case forced him to step down.

In those talks, Olmert offered to turn over parts of east Jerusalem to Palestinians and have an international consortium administer Jerusalem's Old City, home to the most sensitive religious sites. Olmert claimed his talks came tantalizingly close to an agreement. The Palestinians have said Olmert did not go far enough.