JERUSALEM | Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will ask Germany’s leader to drop her support for a proposal endorsing a Palestinian state in nearly all of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem when he meets with her this week, Israeli officials said Wednesday.
Germany, along with Britain and France, is leading the proposal, which would call for an Israeli withdrawal from nearly all territories captured in the 1967 Mideast war.
Mr. Netanyahu objects to such a widespread pullout and says endorsing the Palestinian position on borders would take away a key incentive for them to restart long-stalled negotiations.
Officials close to Mr. Netanyahu said he would raise the matter with Chancellor Angela Merkel at a meeting scheduled Thursday in Berlin. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were discussing a sensitive diplomatic matter.
Israel fears the “Quartet” of Mideast peacemakers - the European Union, United Nations, Russia and United States - will endorse the European initiative when it meets in Germany later this month.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague confirmed this week that the U.K. and its European allies would push for negotiations to proceed based on the 1967 borders, with small adjustments based on mutually agreed-upon land swaps.
“What the U.K., France and Germany are putting to the Quartet is that the basis of negotiations set out by the Quartet, including the United States, should include 1967 borders, with land swaps, a just settlement for refugees and Jerusalem as the shared capital of both states,” Mr. Hague told lawmakers. “We are advocating that as an established basis for negotiations.”
It remains unclear whether the full Quartet - especially the U.S. - supports the proposal.
The Palestinians claim all of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem for their future state.
Although Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, Mr. Netanyahu says Israel must retain areas of the West Bank to ensure his country’s security. Parts of the West Bank are just minutes from major Israeli population centers.
Mr. Netanyahu also rejects a pullout from East Jerusalem - which is home to sensitive Jewish, Christian and Muslim holy sites.
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