Communicated by the GPO December 10, 1997 Palestinian Authority Census in Jerusalem would violate Oslo: Accord prohibits all PA activity in the Capital The Agreement Under the terms of the Oslo Accords, the Palestinian Authority (PA) is prohibited from operating in areas outside its jurisdiction, including Jerusalem. The Interim Agreement ("Oslo 2"), which was signed on September 28, 1995, sets limits on the PA's jurisdiction, stating that it does not include "issues that will be negotiated in the permanent status negotiations: Jerusalem, settlements, specified military locations, Palestinian refugees, borders, foreign relations and Israelis" (Article XVII (1a)). Thus, the PA is barred from exercising any authority or conducting any activity in Jerusalem. In the Note for the Record which accompanied the Hebron Protocol of January 15, 1997, the PA reaffirmed that, "Exercise of Palestinian governmental activity, and location of Palestinian governmental offices, will be as specified in the Interim Agreement." The Violation According to the official PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda (November 21, 1997) the Palestinian Bureau of Statistics announced that "the population census ... will include all the Palestinian areas in the West Bank and Gaza, including East Jerusalem." A week later, Hassan Abu Libdah, head of the Palestinian Bureau of Statistics, reaffirmed that the PA would carry out the census in Jerusalem: "I believe that [Israeli Public Security Minister] Kahalani and the group of arrogant people trailing him can only talk and threaten. We have already said several times that we have a plan...and we will implement it fully, as planned, while ignoring what Kahalani and others say." (Al- Hayat Al-Jadeeda, November 29, 1997) A decision by the PA to include Jerusalem in its census of the Palestinian population would constitute a violation of the Oslo Accords and the Hebron Protocol.