August 13, 2000
Egyptian President Husni Mubarak said no Arab or Muslim could relinquish rights to East Jerusalem and its holy places and warned that a compromise over Jerusalem would lead the region into uncontrollable violence.
The Arabs, Mubarak said, would not stop the Palestinians from signing a deal over Jerusalem but only if it meets the demands of the Palestinian people.
"Any compromise over Jerusalem will cause the region to explode in a way that cannot be put under control and terrorism will rise again," Mubarak told Cairo's Rose El-Youssef magazine.
Mubarak and other Middle East leaders asked President Yasser Arafat during the Camp David Summit no to accept any compromise proposals over Jerusalem. Mubarak came under fire from the U.S Administration for not pressuring President Arafat into accepting an Israeli-American plan on Jerusalem that did not meet the basic rights of the Palestinians in the city.
"No single person in the Arab or Islamic world can relinquish East Jerusalem or Al Aqsa mosque. Even Arafat himself will not dare to sign a deal to give up these Muslim sanctities," said Mubarak, a key mediator in the Middle East peace process.
At Camp David, Israel with the backing of the United States, offered the Palestinians limited control over parts of Jerusalem and insisted on retaining its hold on Islam's third-holiest shrine, Al Aqsa Mosque. President Arafat stood firm in his demand for full Arab sovereignty.
Israel occupied East Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast War and, in a move not recognized internationally, regards all of Jerusalem as its "united and eternal capital."
Shoring up support for Palestinian positions taken at the Camp David Summit for which the United States and Israel said were the reasons for the failure of the Summit, President Arafat visited 15 Arab and European countries in 18 days.
