Israeli Cabinet sets conditions on redeployments in West Bank

JERUSALEM, Nov. 30 (JTA) — Differences between Israeli and Palestinian leaders remain wide despite an Israeli Cabinet decision approving a redeployment in the West Bank. While the Cabinet approved the redeployment Sunday, it did not spell out the extent of the withdrawal or a timetable for carrying it out. The proposal conditioned the handover of land to a commitment by the Palestinian Authority to crack down on terrorism and on the Palestinian leadership’s agreement to proceed to final-status talks. In what was seen as a victory for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, 16 of the Cabinet’s 18 members approved the proposal. The two ministers from the National Religious Party abstained. Conservative members of his coalition have threatened to bring down the government if transfers of additional West Bank land were approved. But the proposal was approved only after Netanyahu agreed to several ministers’ demand that it not mention the extent of the redeployment, according to the Israeli daily Yediot Achronot. Cabinet Secretary Danny Naveh told reporters Sunday that a ministerial committee had been created to discuss Israel’s position on the final-status talks and the redeployment and that more specific proposals could be presented to the Cabinet as early as next week. The committee will include Netanyahu, Foreign Minister David Levy, Defense Minister Yitzhak Mordechai and National Infrastructure Minister Ariel Sharon. Describing the Cabinet vote, Naveh said that “the government has reiterated its belief that the best approach to advancing the peace process is to move immediately to permanent-status negotiations.” Media reports last week indicated that Netanyahu planned to transfer to the Palestinians 6 to 8 percent of the West Bank in a single redeployment before moving to final-status talks. Netanyahu, addressing Israeli news editors last week, said the redeployment would be delayed five months until the Palestinian Authority demonstrated it would crack down on terrorism. Even before the Cabinet voted Sunday on a more vague proposal, the Palestinian Authority had rejected the plan. On Saturday, the Palestinian Cabinet rejected Netanyahu’s proposal for a limited Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank. A Cabinet statement reported by the Palestinian news agency called Netanyahu’s offer no more than “a continuation of the Israeli government’s attempt to evade the agreement on further redeployment.” Under the terms of the 1995 Interim Agreement, Israel was to carry out three redeployments by next year. Earlier this year, Israel planned a first redeployment that would have transferred 2 percent of rural West Bank areas to Palestinian self-rule, but it was rejected as too little by the Palestinian Authority. The redeployment, due to have been carried out in March, was never implemented. Reacting to the Israeli Cabinet vote, senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said the Palestinian Authority would continue to demand that Israel carry out all three redeployments. Israeli opposition members found little substance in the Cabinet vote. “All we heard was a list of conditions” for the Palestinians to fulfill, Labor Knesset member Shlomo Ben-Ami told
Israel Radio. “What we have is that the government will sit some time, and then make a decision.” Members of the dovish Meretz Party termed the Cabinet decision a further sign of the prime minister’s “fraudulent” peace policy. Other opposition members said the fact that the Cabinet overwhelmingly approved the proposal was proof of its lack of substance. Netanyahu has also faced strong criticism from the right-wing for his proposal to transfer West Bank lands to the Palestinians. For the first time since his election last year, right-wing demonstrators gathered outside the prime minister’s residence Saturday night, urging him not to bow to recent American pressures to advance the peace process. About 1,000 people demonstrated, according to the Israeli daily Ma’ariv, which reported that the extreme right boycotted the protest because it was too moderate. When reports surfaced last week that Netanyahu was offering a transfer of 6 to 8 percent of the West Bank, posters appeared showing him dressed in an Arab headdress and calling him a “liar.” In the West Bank, meanwhile, Palestinians in Bethlehem, Hebron, Nablus and Ramallah took to the streets Saturday to protest Israeli policies. Violence erupted at the Bethlehem demonstration when Palestinian demonstrators hurled stones at Israeli soldiers, who responded with rubber bullets and tear gas. At least 25 demonstrators, including a Palestinian police officer, were reportedly hit by rubber bullets. Two Israeli soldiers were slightly injured by stones. The clashes erupted when some 2,000 demonstrators marched near Rachel’s Tomb to demand the release of Palestinian prisoners. A group of about 300 Palestinians broke away from the march and started throwing stones and pieces of concrete at the Israeli troops. The protesters shouted “Death to America” and “Revenge, revenge” and burned an Israeli flag. In Nablus, a Hamas stronghold, about 3,000 marchers burned Israeli and American flags and blew up a wood-and-paper model of an Israeli settlement. The demonstrations took place as Israel marked the 50th anniversary of the U.N. General Assembly resolution calling for the partition of Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states. Some 10,000 people gathered in Tel Aviv on Saturday to recall the historic vote.