2nd redeployment is approved but no lines
Palestine-Israel, Politics, 12/1/1997

Very cautiously yet decidedly the Palestinian government reacted to the decision taken by the Israeli government which pledged in principle to carry out the second phase of the troop redeployment in the West Bank. Palestinian official sources said they were studying the Israeli cabinet decision but no response has been formulated as yet.

The Israeli cabinet decision spoke implicitly of the cancellation of the third redeployment, which will instead be carried out as part of the final-status arrangement, a matter strongly opposed by the Palestinians, who insist that the third redeployment should be implemented according to the letter of the accords, which means that it should be completed before the end of the final status talks.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Dr. Saeb Erekat said the Palestinians have not received any official proposal, in writing or verbally, on the Israeli army redeployment. But he said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had committed himself in the presence of King Hussein of Jordan and US Special Envoy to the Middle East, Dennis Ross, to carrying out the three agreed upon phases of Israeli army redeployment in the West Bank.

"I would like to remind Netanyahu with a meeting that took place on January 12, 1997 at the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv with the presence of King Hussein, Dennis Ross and myself. On the Israeli side, Defense Minister Yitzhak Mordachai was present. In that meeting, Netanyahu pledged to carry out the first redeployment by 3 March 1997, the second by 7 September 1997 and the third one by 7 March 1998 or no later than mid-1998. If Netanyahu forgot this accord with him I can send him a copy." Erekat said that former US Secretary of State Warren Christopher had sent Palestinian President Yasser Arafat a letter dated 12 January 1997 in which the US Administration gave assurances that the three phases of Israeli troop redeployment will be implemented as agreed upon.

Erekat urged the Israeli government to implement all the agreed clauses of the accords and said that Netanyahu is wrong if he thinks he can negotiate with his coalition partners yet dictate to the Palestinians his own agenda of the agreements.

In its decision on Sunday, the Israeli cabinet resolved that only one troop redeployment will take place before the final status agreement is implemented between the two sides, thus canceling the third phase which, according to Palestinian interpretation of the Oslo Accords and the Hebron agreement signed in January this year, should cover no less than 90 percent of the total area of the West Bank. In his response to the Israeli cabinet decision, Erekat was very cautious in expressing his opposition to the decision but ran sort of outright rejection, knowing that such a rejection would provide the Israeli government with the alibi not to implement the upcoming stage of the redeployment.

According to Sunday's decision, a ministerial committee will be appointed to determine the scope of the second-phase withdrawal, including Israel's self-declared red lines for the final-status arrangement.

The Israeli government set a number of conditions which it said the Palestinians should meet before the second phase of redeployment is implemented. It demanded that the Palestinians complete the amendment of the National Charter of the PLO, extradite Palestinians suspected of killing Israelis and stop anti-Israel propaganda in the Palestinian media.

Israeli sources had reported earlier that Israeli and Palestinian officials were expected to leave for the US once the Israeli government approves Netanyahu's plan for the second phase redeployment but Dr. Erekat denied the report and said he does not have on his agenda any plan to travel to the US. Erekat also ruled out the possibility that Envoy Dennis Ross will visit the region this week and said nothing has been decided as yet, possibly waiting for the Israeli government plan to be officially proposed to the Palestinians.

The cabinet decision was taken with the support of 16 ministers and only two ministers of the ultra right wing National Religious Party abstained. The right in Israel had started by Saturday night to organize a nationwide campaign against the Israeli government. For the first time since Netanyahu took power in June last year, right wing activists demonstrated outside Netanyahu's house in West Jerusalem demanding that no redeployment of troops be implemented in the West Bank. The right wing demonstration on Saturday night was moderate but some of the quotes included in speeches of the participants reflected growing tensions and disaffection among a right-wing constituency which brought the Netanyahu government to power. NRP Knesset member Hanan Porat spoke angrily at the rally, calling for the Oslo accords to be "tossed in the garbage."

The Israeli government's decision was mainly based on a number of proposals presented by Minister of National Infrastructure Ariel Sharon whose plan included a number of conditions for carrying out the second phase redeployment. Sharon had suggested that if the Palestinians declare an independent state, Israel will immediately declare the annexation of the settlements, the roads leading to them, the security zones and the Israeli army bases in the West Bank. Sharon had also suggested that 13 roads be laid to serve as future bypass routes, to speed up the construction in the West Bank of Jewish settlements, including granting permits to a number of sites in the Jewish settlement in the heart of Hebron and to release within two weeks a tender to build 1,000 housing units on the settlement of Har Homa on Jabal Abu Ghaneim in East Jerusalem.

Because any agreement for further redeployment should include 90 percent of the West Bank with no regard to the final status talks, as the Palestinians see it, the Palestinian government has called for an effective role to be played by the US Administration and the European community in order to guarantee that the second phase of the redeployment is generous enough to include at least 30 percent of the West Bank territories and that third phase of the redeployment be honored as well.

Previous Stories:
  Palestine expects 30% of areas in troop redeployment   (11/25/1997)
  Palestinians brief Arab countries on Washington negotiations   (11/12/1997)
  Action needed not talk says Palestinians to US   (10/23/1997)

Please add a link on your webiste pointing to ArabicNews.com and bookmark ArabicNews.com & subscribe to our daily email news bulletin.

Search