In Jerusalem standoff, Abbas names new governor
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas named a new local governor for Jerusalem on Tuesday, a largely symbolic move that aides said reflected irritation with Israeli measures in the city, which the Jewish state controls.
Hours before Abbas arrived in Jerusalem from his base in nearby Ramallah for talks with outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, a presidential aide said Abbas had appointed Adnan Husseini, a member of a family that historically provided many of Jerusalem's leaders before Israel's foundation 60 years ago.
Israel took the western part of the city in 1948 and seized Arab East Jerusalem in 1967, later annexing it in a move not recognised internationally. The future of the city, which both Israelis and Palestinians want as a capital, is a key issue in peace negotiations that officials say are far from resolution.
"The appointment is meant to refocus attention on Jerusalem and comes in response to Israel's measures in the occupied city, which we and the rest of the world consider illegal," senior Abbas aide Nimer Hammad told Reuters in Ramallah.
Palestinians complain Israel is consolidating its control over the city by Jewish settlement on occupied land within and around East Jerusalem and by measures that restrict political and economic life for the city's 250,000 Arab residents.
As U.S.-sponsored peace talks have faltered this year, arguments over Jerusalem have become more vocal.
Israel says it is entitled to restrict Palestinian "political activity" in Jerusalem under interim peace deals of the early 1990s -- a view the Palestinian leadership disputes.
Abbas wants to re-open administrative offices and other institutions that were closed down by Israel a decade ago.
"We hope the situation returns to the way it was before the Israeli crackdown on our institutions in Jerusalem," Hammad said. Palestinian activists have also been detained by Israeli police in recent months after meetings in the city.
On Tuesday, Israeli police summoned an official in the Palestinian Authority's Jerusalem affairs bureau. The official, Ahmed Rueidi, and a police spokesman said Rueidi was told not to engage in "political activities" in the city.
Further souring relations over a city that is home to sites sacred to Jews, Muslims and Christians, is Israel's plan to hold a five-yearly election in November for mayor of the area it defines as Jerusalem municipality. Most Arab residents boycott such polls, which the Jewish population of 500,000 dominates.
Husseini replaces previous governor Jamil Nasser in the largely symbolic Palestinian post.
(Editing by Alastair Macdonald)
