Over half of the Israeli Knesset has signed a petition demanding that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert not offer to relinquish control of any parts of Jerusalem during an upcoming US-hosted peace summit with the Palestinians, reported Israel National News.
Those who attached their signatures to the document include 30 members of Olmert's ruling coalition, 13 from his own Kadima Party. Four of the signatories are cabinet ministers.
Olmert has come under intense criticism for statements he and Deputy Prime Minister Haim Ramon have made suggesting they will agree to surrender the Arab-dominated neighborhoods of eastern Jerusalem, including the Old City, to the Palestinians when the two sides meet in Annapolis, Maryland under the auspices of the Bush Administration later this year.
Olmert insisted last month that he did not need Knesset approval for any deal he strikes with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, despite the fact that Israel's Basic Law requires a Knesset majority to alter the status of Jerusalem as the "eternal, undivided capital of Israel."
Shas Party leader Eli Yishai told Ha'aretz on Thursday that if the division of Jerusalem is even mentioned in Annapolis, he will immediately pull his ultra-Orthodox, right-leaning faction out of the ruling coalition.
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Israeli archeologists inspecting ongoing unauthorized Muslim excavations and building projects atop Jerusalem's Temple Mount last week discovered artifacts dating to the First Temple Period.
During the visit to the Muslim-occupied and controlled holy hill, the archeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority examined a deep gash the Muslims had cut into the floor of the compound, revealing a layer of remains they were able to positively date to the eighth to sixth centuries BC.
The artifacts discovered at the site included fragments of bowls decorated in a style characteristic of the First Temple Period, jars for the storage of oil and juglets used to ladle the oil during religious ceremonies.
The Israel Antiquities Authority plans to hold an archeological seminar regarding the find.
Muslim officials at the site continue to insist that an Israeli temple never sat atop Jerusalem's Temple Mount and that the Jews have no legitimate historical connection to the area.
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