Shas: No compromise on Temple Mount

JERUSALEM, Sept. 11 (UPI) -- A Shas Party leader said Tuesday that the Orthodox group will quit the Israeli government if Prime Minister Ehud Olmert agrees to a divided Jerusalem.

Industry, Trade and Labor Minister Eli Yishai said that the Shas Party completely rejects a proposal for international control of the Temple Mount, Haaretz reported.

"There is not even a shadow of a doubt over whether Shas would agree to dividing Jerusalem and a withdrawal to the 1967 borders, or would sit in a government that signed such an accord," Yishai said.

Vice Premier Haim Ramon has proposed that Israel remove its forces from 70 percent of the West Bank and negotiate a final status with the Palestinian Authority. The agreement would include international control of the Temple Mount, which is the holiest shrine for Jews as the site of the temple destroyed by the Romans and the third-holiest for Muslims because of the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque.