JERUSALEM, 17 February 2005 — Jailed Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti said yesterday he expected Palestinians to keep waging an uprising in the West Bank despite President Mahmoud Abbas’ pledge to end all violence against Israelis. Barghouti, a grassroots figure in the four-year-old revolt, made his remarks to an Israeli newspaper as Israel’s Parliament met for a crucial vote on Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s plan to evacuate settlers from Gaza and parts of the West Bank.
The bill on settler compensation, one of the last obstacles Sharon faces, was widely expected to pass despite fierce opposition from ultranationalists, including some in his own party, who call the planned pullout a “reward for terrorism”.
As the debate raged, Sharon unexpectedly cut short the term of army chief Moshe Yaalon — an occasional critic of government policy — drawing concern that his departure on the eve of this summer’s Gaza pullout could endanger the plan.
In the latest sign of Palestinian frustration at the pace of efforts to relaunch a long-stalled peace process, Barghouti accused Israel of dragging its feet with Abbas, saying “at this rate” he would not last in power more than another six months.
Barghouti, once touted as a potential successor to Yasser Arafat and now serving five life terms after an Israeli court convicted him of orchestrating deadly attacks, told the Ma’ariv daily he expected Israel’s planned Gaza pullout to “go quietly”.
But when asked whether the uprising launched in 2000 after peace talks collapsed was now over, Barghouti replied: “The uprising will continue in the West Bank, which you (Israel) will continue to hold onto.”
The vast majority of Israel’s 240,000 settlers live on occupied land in the West Bank, where Sharon intends to cement the Jewish state’s grip on large swathes of territory. “The end of the uprising will come when there is an end to occupation,” Barghouti said. A senior Israeli official dismissed Barghouti’s comments as “scare tactics and psychological warfare”.
Meanwhile, some 4,000 Palestinians, including gunmen firing their rifles into the air, took part yesterday in the funerals of two militants shot dead by the Israeli Army. As the funeral cortege wound its way through the streets of the main northern West Bank city, the mourners chanted slogans denouncing any security cooperation between the Palestinian Authority and Israel.
A group of around 30 gunmen from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades unleashed volleys of gunfire into the air in tribute to the two victims from the group which is an offshoot of the mainstream Fatah organization.
