Israel expected to hand over to PNA villages surrounding Jerusalem
Palestine-Israel, Politics, 1/14/2000

Israel is definitely pulling out of another 6.1 percent of the West Bank in part of the third phase redeployment and in compliance with the Sharm al Sheikh agreement of last year, Palestinian sources said Friday. The sources said that the Palestinian government is confident that Israel will withdraw on January 20 from areas that will include Palestinian villages around Jerusalem such as Abu Dis.

A number of villages surrounding Jerusalem, such as Abu Dis, Izariyeh (Bethany) and Al Ram, are already in Area B, where Israel maintains security control while the Palestinian government is in charge of the civil affairs. The sources said that Palestinian President Arafat has officially asked Israel to complete its withdrawal out of those villages in order for them to become solely and totally under the Palestinian control, meaning Area A according to the Oslo Accords.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak should make up his mind in the coming few days as to which villages and areas are to be handed over to the Palestinians. In recent meetings, senior army officers failed to agree on which villages were to come under Palestinian control. Barak himself attended part of the meeting that was held on Thursday. Some of the officers said that Israel would do better if it hands over the villages in the Jerusalem surroundings to the Palestinian government instead of the planned redeployment of the Israeli troops in the Hebron area. Those officers argued that in the Hebron area, the security risk that Israel will face once its troops are pulled out of certain villagers, is much bigger than that in the Jerusalem surroundings.

According to those officers, Hamas and other opposition groups have an active presence in the Hebron area, and they are likely to utilize the transformation of certain parts to the PNS in order to continue their attacks against Israel without having to worry about being arrested by Israel. Other officers, meanwhile, argued that handing over villagers surrounding Jerusalem to the Palestinian government would increase the debate within Israel and worsen the political atmosphere for the government because of the closeness of the area to Jerusalem, which Israel considers its capital.

Barak has not given any clear indication that he would order the redeployment of his troops in the areas surrounding Jerusalem, but he has given the impression that some of those villages at least will be included in the next redeployment. Barak reportedly sent a message to President Yasser Arafat saying that he "understands the Palestinian demand and will consider it," Palestinian sources said. The sources recalled that Barak's close aide, Haim Ramon, who is a minister in the PM Office for the Jerusalem affairs, had said early last week that the transfer of Abu Dis to full Palestinian control "is the right thing to do." Sources in Ramon's office said that they have been told by the Palestinians that such a move by the Barak government "would mean a lot" to the Palestinian government. According to those sources, the final map of the upcoming redeployment should be discussed in the Sunday Cabinet meeting.

One Palestinian government source said the village of Izariyeh might be the only village that Israel might not want to hand over to the Palestinians because of its proximity to the Jewish settlement of Maaleh Adumim. The settlement's mayor, Benny Kashrieli, had lately claimed that a handover of the village to the Palestinian government would cause major problems to Jewish settlers who will have to commute to their work places in Israel through the road that will be within the area of the PNA, should Izariyeh be handed over to the Palestinians. The source, however, said that Barak might eventually order his troops to pull out of some of the villages surrounding Jerusalem in order to prove to both the Palestinian government and the US Administration that he has no intention to achieve progress on the Syrian track at the expense of the Palestinian one.

President Arafat is officially expected in Washington on 20 January for a summit meeting with President Bill Clinton. And Palestinian officials believe that a decision on the pullout will be taken in Israel long before Arafat departs to the US.

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