Demonstrators renewed their protests against Israel’s ongoing negotiations with the Palestinians as Foreign Shimon Peres and Palestine Authority leader Yasser Arafat failed to make any significant progress in their talks.
Demonstrators who on Sunday had staked out a hillside near Nebi Samuel, located north of Jerusalem, were cleared out by security forces on Monday.
The evacuation took five minutes and there were no serious clashes, according to local news reports.
The protest at Nebi Samuel – and another on a hilltop near the West Bank settlement of Beit El – marked the resumption of four days of often stormy protests launched last week by settler groups opposed to ceding West Bank land in any future peace deal with the Palestinians.
The protests were suspended for three days in response to an appeal from President Ezer Weizman.
Most of those at the Nebi Samuel protests were residents of Jerusalem and nearby communities.
“We are not `settlers’ in the understanding of the word as it has been used here,” said protester Tami Quinn. “We have our homes in Jerusalem, but we do support the idea that the land of Israel belongs to the people of Israel. We could not sit silently.”
The demonstrators said the site near Nebi Samuel was state lane that, under the terms of the Palestinian self-role accord, would be handed over to the Palestinian Authority.
Meanwhile, the right-wing group Zu Artzenu, or “This is Our Land,” announced Monday that it was launching a nationwide effort against Israel’s peace policies with the Palestinians.
Members of the group said at a news conference that they planned to block major highways and intersections throughout Israel this week as part of the settlers campaign of civil disobedience.
The protests and threats of disruptions came as Peres and Arafat met in the Egyptian resort of Taba. At the same time, Israeli and Palestinian negotiating terms resumed their talks across the border in nearby Eilat.
The Peres-Arafat meeting was held in an attempt to overcome differences holding up an agreement for the extension of Palestinian self-rule in the West Bank.
Among the main issues of contention are: security, water rights, electricity and the participation of residents of eastern Jerusalem in Palestinian elections.
Another issue is a Palestinian demand for the transfer of state land in the West Bank. Israel Radio quoted Peres as saying that Israel is ready to transfer authority over the areas to the Palestinians, but not actual sovereign rights to the land.
Before attending the Taba meeting, Peres told the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that he hoped that the talks with Arafat would help resolve those issues.
Peres was quoted as telling committee members that an agreement could be wrapped up soon.
But sources at the meeting also quoted Peres as saying that if there is a delay, it would not be the worst thing.
Peres, in an interview with Israel Radio, dismissed settlers’ demands that the next phase of the self-rule agreement be put before the Israeli electorate in a national referendum.
“The settlers are like any other citizens of Israel who can come to discuss things concerning them,” Peres said. “But if they come like a parliament and say we have to stop the negotiations, or go to a referendum, well, there is not two parliaments, but one.”
Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin expressed similar sentiments during a visit Monday to an army induction base.
“I am ready to maintain contact, to discuss with them issues, but by no means to change the basic elements of the policy of the government,” Rabin told Israel Radio.
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