OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 15 May — In an attempt to beat back a challenge from party rival Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon yesterday ruled out peace talks with the Palestinians unless they reformed the Palestinian Authority.
In a speech to Parliament, Sharon said Israel had not yet completed a mission to root out Palestinians suspected of involvement in attacks on Israelis and made clear that punitive army raids into Palestinian-ruled territory would continue.
Sharon’s condition for peace talks came as Palestinians prepared to commemorate today the “Nakba”, or Great Catastrophe, when 700,000 of them were uprooted from their homes amid fighting over the creation of Israel in 1948.
Palestinians planned to march in cities in a day of mourning — the second Nakba to be marked during an uprising against Israeli occupation that broke out 19 months ago. A repeat of the clashes that erupted at last year’s Nakba would mar a relative calm since an Israeli Army offensive in the West Bank wound down and a 35-day siege of Palestinian leader Arafat’s West Bank headquarters ended.
Sharon offered no policy shift despite hopes abroad that the time was right to try to revive peace talks. He was speaking two days after his Likud party’s central committee opposed his policy of allowing a Palestinian state under certain conditions.
Sunday’s vote was engineered by right-wing rival Benjamin Netanyahu, the former prime minister and Sharon’s likely challenger for the Likud leadership.
Sharon did not refer directly to a Palestinian state in his speech to Parliament but said the Palestinian leadership must carry out profound internal reforms to anchor democracy and put an end to violence against Israelis.
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat blasted Sharon’s speech. “He is using pretexts to block any road that leads to the negotiating table. He is using dictation and not negotiations,” Erekat said.
“He stopped negotiations and continues to try to dictate to Palestinians. He is continuing with his war crimes and with state terrorism,” Erekat said of the former general.
Sharon has said he could envisage a demilitarized Palestinian state formed alongside Israel but only after a long transitional process and period of calm. Likud’s central committee voted never to endorse a Palestinian state. The vote contradicted government policy, deepened anger among Palestinians and dismayed Western and Arab state leaders struggling to revive peace efforts.
Earlier yesterday, the Israeli Army carried out more raids in the West Bank. An army spokesman said troops raiding the town of Halhoul shot dead Khaled Abu Knaam, local commander of the Palestinian Authority’s General Intelligence Apparatus, and another officer, Ahmed Abdel Aziz Zomareh.
