Thursday, February 1st, 2001

Paltel and Bezeq to sever operating ties and no agreement solution on service to Jerusalem residents yet.

DAVOS, Switzerland - Israel and the Palestinian Authority have agreed to sever ties in the communications sector but the plan has been stymied because they have not yet found an agreed solution on service to Jerusalem Residents.

Zahi Khouri, CEO of the Palestinian telephone company, Paltel, and Chairman of its cellular telephone network, Jawwal, revealed the plan to Ha'aretz at the international Economic Forum in Davos.

He said the Palestinian Communications Ministry had submitted a Compromise proposal to the Israeli Communications two months ago, but Has not received any response. He said the proposal suggested giving a Special and equal status to residents of Arab and Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem, who would be served by a new area code, 01, instead of the present 02 Bezeq code which serves all of the city.

Under the Palestinian proposal, residents of east Jerusalem who want to call Tel Aviv would have to dial the international code for Israel (972) while those who wanted to call Ramallah would dial the international code for the PA (970). The calls would be charged as a domestic call. Billing would be done by Bezeq, which would hand over Paltel's share of revenue to the Palestinian Phone Company.

The Palestinians propose such an arrangement should remain in force until a political decision is reached on the final status of Jerusalem. The Compromise that the Palestinians are suggesting would allow Paltel to operate as a company in an independent state.