Special report: Palestine-Israel Relations

    RAMALLAH, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- A senior Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) official rejected on Thursday an Israeli proposal to give the Palestinians some neighborhoods in east Jerusalem to be the capital of the Palestinian state.

    Yasser Abed Rabbo, who is also a Palestinian negotiator, said in a statement that east Jerusalem is not a subject of torn neighborhoods; it is a unified unit connected to the West Bank, which was occupied by Israel in 1967.

    Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Wednesday said it has to be known in Israel that some Arab neighborhood in east Jerusalem would be the capital of the future Palestinian state.

    "We won't accept less than all east Jerusalem and the West Bank as one territorial unit occupied by Israel in 1967," said Abed Rabbo, adding "According to the international law, Israel has no right to annex or own any part of east Jerusalem."

    In November 2007, Israel and the Palestinian National Authority agreed in Annapolis, the United States, to form two teams to negotiate the six permanent status issues: Jerusalem, the Palestinian refugees, the Jewish settlements in the West Bank, water, borders of the future Palestinian state and security.

    Barak, who doubted that an agreement would be reached by the end of this year, didn't say if these neighborhoods would include all east Jerusalem which was annexed after it was occupied by Israel in 1967.