Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu intends to keep about 60 percent of the West Bank under Israeli control in a permanent settlement with the Palestinians, a senior Israeli official said Sunday.
A Palestinian official rejected the idea outright. The Palestinians have said repeatedly they expect to gain control over at least 90 percent of the West Bank, which Israel captured in 1967."There is no Palestinian who will accept Israel's keeping 60 percent of the West Bank," said Anis el-Qaq, deputy Palestinian planning minister.
"If Israel does not want to withdraw from the areas it conquered in 1967, and if the peace talks do not lead to establishment of a Palestinian state, then there is no need for peacemaking," he told The Associated Press.
A spokeswoman for the Interior Ministry confirmed that Jerusalem city officials and the Interior Ministry are working on a plan to extend the boundaries of the city into the West Bank.
The Palestinians currently have full control over 3 percent of the West Bank and partial control over 24 percent.
The Maariv newspaper reported Sunday that Netanyahu wants Israel to keep 45 to 50 percent of the West Bank, but the Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press: "It's about 60 percent, not 45 or 50."
Under Netanyahu's plan, Israel would keep land in the Jordan Valley; along a north-south mountain ridge running through the West Bank; around the Gush Etzion bloc of settlements south of Jerusalem; along the West Bank's western border with Israel; and on both sides of the corridor connecting Jerusalem with the rest of Israel.