Israelis fight proposal to divide Jerusalem

JERUSALEM (AP) - Tens of thousands of Israelis and Jews from around the world rallied outside the stone walls of the Old City yesterday, saying Jerusalem must not be divided.

Police estimated that as many as 100,000 people - many of them bused from towns across Israel and settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip - thronged the streets outside Jaffa Gate. The crowd waved Israeli flags, listened to patriotic music and heard declarations that Jerusalem will remain solely under Israeli control. For hours before the rally got under way, the city was nearly impassable, with police deploying thousands of officers and closing many roads.

Organizers billed the demonstration as apolitical, but many of those who turned out said they had come to protest caretaker Prime Minister Ehud Barak's willingness to divide sovereignty over Jerusalem with the Palestinians.

"I came to say that no one, no one in the world - not even Mr. Barak - will give this to someone else," said Yossi Avissar, who added that his family has lived in Jerusalem for seven generations. "We want to tell him no, we want to tell him that these walls belong to all the Jews of the world."

Before the rally began, police reported that Palestinians threw stones at officers near Damascus Gate, also in the walls of the Old City. For the first time in weeks, a short burst of gunfire targeted the Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo from the West Bank city of Bethlehem. But the demonstration itself passed largely without incident.

There were scattered incidents in the West Bank and Gaza Strip on Monday, a day after Israeli and Palestinian officials met with CIA Director George J. Tenet in Cairo, Egypt, to discuss restoring the security cooperation that collapsed after violence erupted between Israelis and Palestinians in late September.

Palestinians said the talks made no progress, but the sides agreed to meet again Tuesday in Cairo. Barak has said there must be a significant reduction in violence for real peace talks to resume.