Reuters

     Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a special
cabinet meeting marking Jerusalem Day at Ammunition Hill in Jerusalem
May 20, 2012. Jerusalem Day marks the anniversary of Israel's capture of
the Eastern part of the city during the 1967 Middle East War.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on
Monday it would be a "fatal mistake" ever to give up control over
Jerusalem's holy sites.

His remarks, in a parliamentary speech, went a little further than
Israel's longtime policy of viewing Jerusalem, a city at the heart of
Middle East conflict, as its "indivisible capital".

Addressing a debate marking 45 years since Israel captured and annexed
the city's eastern sector, in a move never recognised internationally,
Netanyahu said:

"Whoever proposes we take the heart of Jerusalem, the Temple Mount, and
take it out of our hands, and that this would bring about peace, I say
not only is this a mistake but a fatal mistake."

Netanyahu said that sites holy to Judaism, Islam and Christianity
enjoyed a "wonder of inter-religious peace that is maintained thanks to
Jerusalem's unity under Israeli sovereignty."

"The Temple Mount is in our hands and ... it shall remain in our hands,"
Netanyahu added.

The Temple Mount, a site in Jerusalem's old walled city, is revered by
Jews as the place where two biblical temples once stood. The area also
houses two of Islam's holiest shrines, the al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome
of the Rock.

Palestinians want east Jerusalem as capital of a future state in the
Gaza Strip and the West Bank, territory Israel also captured in a 1967 war.

Western-sponsored negotiations hit deadlock months ago in a dispute over
Jewish settlement building in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem.

In a related development, Israel's parliament passed a law on Monday
granting tax incentives to organizations seen as encouraging settlement
in Israel and occupied territory, in addition to tax breaks already
offered to settlers in the past.

(Writing by Allyn Fisher-Ilan; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/netanyahu-fatal-mistake-concede-sacred-sites...

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