Former Palestinian Authority (PA) Minister of Information Mustafa Barghouti has called on the PA to halt negotiations with the Olmert government unless it stops all building in Greater Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria. Barghouti, a distant cousin of jailed arch-terrorist Marwan Barghouti, also is a member of the PA legislature and is head of the Palestinian National Initiative. He urged a halt in talks shortly after the departure of American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who spoke in unusually harsh terms against Israel for maintaining security roadblocks and checkpoints.
During Secretary Rice's last visit, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced he would freeze all building, but he backed down in the face of a threat that the Shas party might bolt the coalition, a move which could spell the end of his government.