Further redeployment this week
Palestine-Israel, Politics, 10/30/1999

Israel is scheduled to hand over to the Palestine government this week, and precisely on November 5, the remaining three percent of the West Bank from Area C (under full Israeli control) to Area B (Palestinian administrative control), and another 2 percent from B to A (full Palestinian control).

The Israeli army has prepared a plan to fortify some 40 Jewish settlements that, immediately after the implementation of the upcoming further redeployment, will border Palestinian autonomous areas. The Sharm Al Sheikh agreement had set a timetable for implementing the Wye Memorandum. According to this timetable, Israel is due to open the wholesale market in the heart of Hebron, a site that Israel sealed after the 1994 massacre of Muslim worshippers inside the Ibrahimi Mosque where a lone Jewish settler, Baruch Goldstein, opened fire and killed at least 28 Palestinian worshippers. In demonstrations that erupted in protest of the massacre, Israeli troops killed and wounded at least 20 more Palestinians.

Next on the timetable is the opening of the remaining parts of the Shuhada street in Hebron where, Jewish settler complained, Palestinians will be free to travel along areas adjacent to the Jewish settlement in the heart of the city. Those settlement sites include the Dabbouya building that Israeli settlers call Beit Hadassah and the school of Usama Ben Al Munqeth, which the Israeli army confiscated back in the early 80s and named it Beit Rumano.

A shop owner in the Shuhada street whose business over the past few years reached its lowest level due to the closure was very angry to hear those complaints from the settlers. "The buildings are ours and the city is ours. They came and took over the heart of the city by force and imposed themselves on our lives. Those intruders have no right to complain and should leave the city no matter how long that would take," said Yousef Hirbawi from Hebron.

Previous Stories:
  Arafat meets with Moussa   (10/27/1999)
  Opening the Palestinian secure passage   (10/25/1999)
  Palestine complains about new Israeli settlements   (10/22/1999)

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