Dahlan, Mofaz meeting in Jerusalem end without progress
Palestine-Israel, Politics, 7/31/2003

The Israeli radio said that Palestinian Minister of State for Security Affairs Mohammad Dahlan and IsraelÕs defense minister Shaoul Mofaz were not able on Wednesday evening to agree on the issue of transferring the supervision of two cities in the West Bank.

The radio added that the meeting which lasted for four hours in Jerusalem area did not result on an agreement on that file. No further details were provided.

Dahlan asked for an Israeli withdrawal from Ramullah, the headquarters of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and from Qalqilya or Nablus in the north of the West Bank, according to an official in his office before the meeting. He also called on Israel to release most possible number of Palestinian political detainees.

On Sunday, an Israeli official announced that this week 540 Palestinians out of 6,000 will be released, held in the Israeli jails.

Before the Mofaz- Dahlan meeting, Israeli officials ruled out a withdrawal from Ramullah in this phase and talked about transferring supervision at the cities of Qalqilya and Areiha.

News reports in the Palestinian territories said the Palestinian authority called for actual withdrawals from the city of Ramullah as a beginning and then from Nablus and Qalqilya which has been exposed to continued Israeli military operations.

The security meeting comes amid a Palestinian regret over statements made by the Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon in Washington over continuation of the building a security wall. In this regard, Dahlan said that Israel does not seriously think of implementing the Roadmap to peace, considering that "the racist separation wall" enhances hatred.

He added that if Israel wants to install the wall "let them build it on the border of June 4, 1967, despite the fact that we do not agree also on that." On the other hand, hundreds of Palestinians yesterday observed a sit-in in the city of Deir al-Balah to the south of Gaza, demanding the release of Palestinian detainees from the Israeli jails.

More than 500 persons including families of detainees, and scores of detainees' children gathered in front of the square of the municipalities, carrying pictures for several detainees, chanting slogans denouncing the detention of thousands of Palestinians and that there will be no peace without releasing the prisoners.

Moreover, in a statement issued by the Palestinian news agency, the minister for prisoners affairs Hisham Abdul Razeq warned the state of unrest in the Israeli jails as a result of continued oppressive measures against the Palestinian detainees, noting that this will flare up a revolution inside it.

He added that there is no more legal or moral justification for continued detention of 360 Palestinian children in the Israeli jails "especially that the Israeli practices are a violation to all international norms and charters."

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