Zionist Union candidate Professor Yossi Yonah said Wednesday at a political panel held at Mikveh Israel High School in Holon that his party would be willing to discuss the division of Jerusalem. "Jerusalem is in practice a divided city," he said. "We have to discuss the possibility of having the Arab neighborhoods be on the Palestinian side in a permanent arrangement." In the last election, Labor ran on a political platform that supported Jerusalem's Arab neighborhoods belonging to the Palestinian side and Jewish neighborhoods to the Israeli side should Jerusalem be divided. The party's current platform does not address the issue, except for a sentence that speaks of "renewing the diplomatic process, if possible, on our terms, by establishing regional coalitions that will lead to overall regional change." Yonah's words deviate from his party's usual opinions on the matter. For example, during last year's Hanukkah holiday in December, Zionist Union leaders Isaac Herzog and Tzipi Livni visited the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City and promised that they were committed to "safeguarding this holy place" and to doing everything possible to ensure that the city "is not torn or divided." Likud MK Ofir Akunis, who also participated in Wednesday's panel, responded to Yonah's statement on his Facebook page, writing, "Way to go, Yossi Yonah. ... He was asked about his party's position on Jerusalem, and he said, 'We will discuss the division of Jerusalem.' He didn't lie to the voters, he didn't hide behind rhetoric or lies like Buji [Herzog] and Tzipi. Simply the truth."
