The Kadima party's Knesset representatives held a meeting Monday to discuss the status of Jerusalem and Jerusalem's place in the party platform. Eleven Kadima MKs took part in the discussion, which took place while Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is visiting Japan. No ministers attended the talks. 
"When the public elected us," said MK David Tal, "it did not know that we plan to make concessions in Jerusalem."
Most of the MKs in attendance expressed support for the position that Jerusalem must remain united. The Kadima platform includes "guarding united Jerusalem as the capital of Israel" and clearly opposes splitting the city, according to the MKs.
"When the public elected us," said MK David Tal, "it did not know that we plan to make concessions in Jerusalem." Tal observed that in the year 2000, even PLO arch-terrorist Yasser Arafat was afraid to compromise the Arab position on Jerusalem, regardless of the concessions offered by then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak.
"Ministers do not determine the activities of the faction leadership. We also have a position, and today we are making our stance clear," said MK Eli Aflalo, the chairman of the Kadima party Knesset faction. "It is imperative that Olmert and the ministers know about the position we are formulating." Aflalo and MK Zeev Elkin called for the faction meeting following reports that party head Olmert is discussing the division of Jerusalem with Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas.
MK Yoel Hasson observed that party members considering a position that approves of re-dividing Jerusalem "are causing damage to Kadima."
Saying that the Kadima position is not that of the Likud, Labor or the Geneva Initiative of far-left politician Yossi Beilin, MK Otniel Schneller said, "Kadima is a centrist party even on the issue of Jerusalem." Schneller explained that means acceptance of a Palestinian state and relinquishing some Jewish towns to the Arabs, "but Jerusalem belongs to the Jewish people."
Several MKs suggested that any agreement with the PA that includes concessions over Jewish sovereignty in Jerusalem be brought to the people in a referendum. There is no provision in Israeli law by which a referendum legally binds the hands of the government.