Palestine expects 30% of areas in troop redeployment
Palestine-Israel, Politics, 11/25/1997

Palestine has yet to receive an official Israeli proposal regarding the second phase of Israeli troop redeployment in the West Bank, but Palestinian officials said that it is unacceptable if the vacated area is only a reported 6 to 8 percent of the West Bank.

Palestinian President Yasser Arafat told reporters Tuesday morning that Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's special emissary Yitzhak Molcho had visited him on Monday night and brought with him a set of ideas but nothing was formal. Israeli sources said that Netanyahu is trying to sell the idea to the PNA and the US Administration in which only 8 percent of the West Bank land would be included in the second phase of troop redeployment. The sources said that the Israeli army withdrawal is not going to be carried out in one or two areas but in sporadic sites in the West Bank in order to prevent Palestinian territorial continuity in large areas of the West Bank.

Palestinian sources said President Arafat rejected Netanyahu¹s initiative ideas concerning the second phase withdrawal from the West Bank that were brought to him by Molcho and a number of senior Israeli army officers. Palestinian Legislative Council speaker Ahmad Qurei' (Abu Ala') said that Israel should withdraw in three phases from 90 percent of the West Bank territory. "If it doesn¹t, the PNA has no reason to take part in negotiations for a final arrangement," added Abu Ala'.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Dr. Saeb Erekat pointed out that the Palestinians heard about the proposal from the media. Saying the proposal was a trick, Dr. Erekat added: "The Palestinians demand that Israel carry out the phase withdrawals as they are stipulated in the agreements at an average of each of the phase withdrawals forming 30 percent of the territory still remaining under Israeli control, so that in the end 90 percent of the West Bank territory winds up in Palestinian control. The Palestinians are also not willing to refer the discussion of the third phase withdrawal to the context of final arrangement negotiations. They insist that the agreement about the implementation of the phases is already signed, and not amenable to renegotiation.

Netanyahu's latest proposal involves combining the first and second phase withdrawals. A high-ranking political source said that specific figures for territory to be returned to the Palestinians have yet to be cited, but that ³it won¹t be a massive withdrawal.² According to estimates, the intention is to propose that between 6-8 percent of C areas under Israeli control now be designated as B areas under Israeli military control alone. According to sources close to Foreign Minister David Levy, what is being considered is the transfer of 10 percent of the West Bank territories now controlled by Israel.

In exchange for this withdrawal, Israel wants to undertake accelerated negotiations, lasting six to nine months, for the final settlement; the third phase roll-back would be deferred, and its implementation would come in the framework of the final arrangement. But Palestine officially has rejected such an approach and Palestinian officials said the three phases of the redeployment should be carried out in their entirety before any talks on the final status are started with Israel.

Israel's phase program derives from a map of strategic interests drawn by the Israeli defense ministry in the days of the former Labor governments. Several basic parameters are set out in this mapping, leaving in Israel's hands all of the Jordan Valley, a line of separation along the pre-67 borders, a security strip around Jerusalem, and another one around the Jewish settlement bloc near Hebron, known as Gush Etzion. Areas essential for water sources would also remain under full Israeli control, under the draft plan being worked out by Netanyahu's office.

Meanwhile, US State Department special ambassador to the Middle East and North Africa, Martin Indyk, was quoted as saying that both President Bill Clinton and his Secretary of State Madeleine Albright have lost their patience due to the freeze in the peace process. Speaking at a luncheon sponsored by a US Jewish pro-peace organization, Indyk stated that the US will display more active involvement in the political process, but he denied that Washington intends to submit its own program for the resolution of the dispute.

US sources in Washington said the Clinton Administration is expecting an Israeli answer about the second phase that would suffice for the arrangement of a meeting between President Clinton and Prime Minister Netanyahu. The sources said that US officials expect a ³significant² withdrawal, and they hope that ³it will not look like a trick.² In closed talks, US officials refer to the transfer of 15 percent of C areas to A areas controlled exclusively by the Palestinians. The US Administration contends that in effect, the first phase withdrawal was never carried out; and that the discussion now refers to the linking of two phase withdrawals. The assumption is that the US will relent to a compromise entailing a 10 percent withdrawal. The phase withdrawal, US officials insist, will not represent a substitution for a freeze on Jewish settlement construction in the West Bank.

Previous Stories:
  No West Bank withdrawal   (11/14/1997)
  Palestinians brief Arab countries on Washington negotiations   (11/12/1997)
  Washington Palestinian - Israeli Talks   (11/3/1997)

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