RAMALLAH, Oct. 2 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Foreign Relations Advisor Nabil Shaath said Monday that the reported news about Israel's intention to isolate Arab neighborhoods in East Jerusalem is "Israeli emphasis of apartheid regime."
Shaath said in exclusive statements to Xinhua that this Israeli announcement "is part of the colonial Zionist scheme."
He added "it isn't enough that they surround us with the apartheid wall that curls its way through the West Bank like a snake, but also want to sub-divide Jerusalem to isolate Palestinian neighborhoods inside it because they found out that the Palestinian demographic will exceed Jewish residents, so they built a wall to isolate the Palestinian towns and camps from the holy city."
Maariv daily newspaper reported that that Likud Knesset member Anat Berko was assigned by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to put together a plan to isolate Palestinian towns and refugee camps from Jerusalem.
According to the newspaper, the plan aims at making a 95 percent Jewish majority, after transferring towns, villages and camps that are located around Jerusalem to the control of the Palestinian National Authority.
Meanwhile, Shaath criticized that the U.S. position towards the Palestinian-Israeli conflict "is still unclear and concerning," underlining that the American side "has not yet submitted any project" to start negotiations between both sides.
