Areas should be turned over to Palestinians: Israeli Deputy PM

Israel should turn over Arab neighbourhoods in Jerusalem to the Palestinians as part of a peace deal with the moderate government of President Mahmoud Abbas, Israel’s deputy prime minister said today in some of the frankest remarks to date about what Israel might be willing to relinquish.

The conciliatory statement by Haim Ramon came just hours after a coalition of Israeli human rights groups condemned the government’s decision this week to cut back fuel and electricity supplies to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.