'Peace deal' drawn up for Middle East

Two years of talks between former Israeli and Palestinian negotiators have produced a 50-page peace deal that could be the basis for eventual official negotiations, even though it has no formal standing, participants said today.

Israeli leaders blasted the agreement as irresponsible, saying the Israeli participants, among them former left-wing Cabinet ministers, centrists generals and legislators allied with Israel’s opposition, had no right to make concessions in Israel’s name.

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has been briefed on the contacts and is aware of the details of the agreement, Palestinian officials said.

The Palestinians were represented by Cabinet ministers, legislators and leaders of the ruling Fatah party.

As part of the deal, Israel would withdraw from 98% of the West Bank and all of the Gaza Strip, annexing about 20 of 150 Jewish setlements, negotiators said.

The Palestinians would be compensated for the missing 2% by receiving some land in Israel’s Negev Desert, mainly to widen Gaza.

Jerusalem would be divided by an international border, with Jewish neighbourhoods going to Israel, and Arab neighbourhoods becoming part of Palestine.

The walled Old City, with its major holy sites, would remain open to both sides. The Palestinians would control the Al Aqsa Mosque compound, Islam’s third holiest shrine, while Israel would retain sovereignty over parts of the Western Wall, which runs alongside the mosque compound.

Palestinian refugees would be mainly be resettled in Palestine and in third countries, or be offered compensation. The document makes no reference to a blanket ”right of return” of Palestinian refugees to homes in what is now Israel, defusing a major sticking point that has derailed negotiations in the past.

The two sides completed a draft agreement that is to be signed next month in Geneva, possibly on November 4, to mark the anniversary of the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.