BEIRUT/GAZA CITY, 30 January — Arab interior ministers met in Beirut yesterday to discuss cooperation against terrorism for the first time since the anti-US terror attacks, with the opening session taking a swipe at Israeli “terrorism”.
Also yesterday, Israel prepared to fortify Jerusalem after a series of blistering Palestinian attacks, as US President George W. Bush accused Yasser Arafat of misleading him over an arms smuggling debacle. The proposals to cut off the disputed city’s eastern half, which is mostly Arab, from the West Bank came as Palestinian shooting damaged six houses in the Jewish settlement of Gilo on the city’s southwest flank.
In the Lebanese capital, Saudi Interior Minister Prince Naif opened the three-day meeting of Arab interior ministers by condemning the “state terrorism exercised by Israel” against the Palestinians. “If Israel’s practices against the defenseless Palestinian people are not terrorism, then what is terrorism?” asked the Saudi minister.
He also called for “a distinction between terrorism and the legitimate struggle for the defense of dignity and land,” referring to Israel’s occupation of Arab territory. Prince Naif said “the latest events that struck the United States have triggered a hatred in the West toward the Arabs and the Muslims.” Muslim countries have been the target of negative publicity since the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, which were carried out by extremists, allegedly under the command of Osama Bin Laden.
The Secretary-General of the Council of Arab Interior Minister, Muhammad Ali Kuman, regretted that “there is now a mixing between the Arabs and terrorism ... and many Arab communities in the West are subjected to unacceptable measures.” The Arabs “called in vain for years for holding a conference, under the auspices of the United Nations, in order to define the concept of terrorism and elaborate an international treaty to combat terrorism,” said Kuman.
Lebanese Interior Minister Michel Murr, on behalf of President Emile Lahoud, said “the one who thinks that terrorism has a religion or a nation is mistaken.” Apparently referring to the United States, he also said “the one who thinks that pursuing a double-standard policy and putting the logic of force before justice is mistaken.
“How can peace be achieved in the region when Israel carries out the ugliest kind of terrorism ... and when the Israeli military arsenal kills the Arab citizen, destroys the homes of civilians and occupies Arab land?” he asked.
Ahmad Saeed Al-Tamimi, undersecretary at the Palestinian Interior Ministry, represented the Palestinian Authority after Israel blocked Justice Minister Freih Abu Middein from attending the event. Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, who also holds the interior portfolio, has been blockaded by Israel in the West Bank city of Ramallah for nearly two months, since a rash of bombings at the start of December. After the opening, the Arab ministers went behind closed doors to discuss the 23 issues on the agenda of the conference, which is to focus on ways to combat terrorism and drugs.
In Jerusalem, Israeli Public Security Minister Uzi Landau denied press reports of a wall between the east and the largely Jewish west. Other press reports said the wall would separate Jerusalem from the West Bank. The city’s eastern sector, including the Old City and its holy sites, was seized by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war and subsequently annexed. Landau said the plan aimed to cut off Palestinians in the West Bank from the city “by defensive obstacles.”
The plan was being examined by the hawkish Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon earlier in the day before going to the government for consideration “soon,” Israeli radio said, without giving an exact date. According to the radio, the plan proposes a series of checkpoints and physical barriers along the city’s edges to control access.
Israel soldiers also arrested three Palestinians in a troop and tank raid in the West Bank yesterday. Israel’s army faced a rebellion in its own ranks, with controversy growing over the refusal of more than 50 reservist officers and soldiers to serve in occupied territory in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The reservists’ decision has touched off debate over the army’s conduct in 16 months of conflict, and the presentation of the security plan highlighted public concern about Israel’s ability to protect itself against bomb and shooting attacks.
Tanks and troops raided Irtas, near the West Bank town of Bethlehem, at 0130 GMT. Six Palestinians, including two women, were hurt in the Israeli firing, Palestinian sources said.
