GAZA CITY, 24 March 2003 — Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat accused Israel yesterday of trying to destroy the roadmap to a Palestinian state by proposing to extend a fence guarding its territory 20 kilometers farther into the West Bank.
An Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said earlier in Jerusalem that the “security fence” could be shifted 20 kilometers (12 miles) eastward to protect the Ariel and Kaddumin settlements in the northern West Bank.
The proposal, made by the defense ministry, will soon be put before the Israeli cabinet, the official said.
Erakat accused Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s government of thinking “it can use the fact that the world’s eyes are turned to Iraq to create a new situation on the ground.”
“The Israelis want to destroy the roadmap (to a Palestinian state) and replace it with an Israeli roadmap by imposing a new reality on the ground with settlements and occupation,” Erakat told AFP in Gaza City.
The original path of the fence has already been extended several kilometers to the east to protect Alfei Manashe, a major settlement near the Palestinian town of Kalkiliya.
According to press reports, Sharon’s government is also considering putting up a second fence in the east of the West Bank that will let Israel keep control over the Jordan Valley.
Erakat called the fence plan a “great challenge” for the quartet dealing with the Middle East peace process: the United Nations, the United States, the European Union and Russia. The quartet has drafted the long-delayed roadmap which would outline steps to end two and a half years of Israeli-Palestinian violence and ways to create a Palestinian state by 2005.
The Israeli fence proposal “is going to show whether the quartet is serious.
We’re asking them to prevent Israel from putting (the fence plan) into place,” Erakat said.
Last week, US President George W. Bush promised to release the Middle East roadmap after the Palestinians install a prime minister with real powers.
