RAMALLAH, West Bank, 9 September — Israel thwarted what Palestinians had hoped would be their first full Parliament session since the beginning of the intifada, while its troops pressed on with their sweep for wanted activists yesterday. The 86-member Parliament was due to hold today its first full session in two years in order to approve Cabinet changes made recently by Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, but the Israeli authorities denied 14 Gaza Strip MPs passes to travel to the West Bank town.
The hawkish Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had given permission last week for the session to go ahead today in Ramallah but had warned that MPs "involved in terrorism" would be barred from the session, due to take place in Arafat’s battered headquarters. Other MPs in Gaza who were allowed to travel to Ramallah said they would not go to the West Bank to protest Israel’s decision but would take part in the session via a video link.
Some West Bank MPs vowed to boycott the gathering all together. Ibrahim Abu Al-Naja, who is Parliament Speaker Ahmed Qorei’s deputy for the Gaza Strip, mocked the Israeli blacklist which he said included a Parliament member who died of old age five months ago, while the list of those granted a pass included a deputy who resigned from Parliament five years ago.
"This is evidence that Israel is blindly opposed to the session. It is absolute nonsense," he told reporters, condemning the policy of checkpoints and closures which makes it virtually impossible for Palestinian deputies to meet without permits. The Israeli ban sparked the ire of the Palestinians and was another blow to efforts aimed at reducing the tension in the 23-month-old intifada, which has claimed almost 2,500 lives.
Israeli Army, however, continued its operations in the occupied territories. In the central Gaza Strip, Israeli tanks and a bulldozer staged an incursion during which they razed olive groves, Palestinian security sources said. Israeli troops arrested 17 Palestinians in the southern West Bank village of Yatta, near Hebron, including five members of Arafat’s Fatah, witnesses and military sources said.
The army captured a suspected militant north of Ramallah and three in the northern West Bank town of Tulkarm, while border police nabbed another Palestinian in a nearby village, an army spokesman said. For the second day running, the army slapped a curfew on all the West Bank towns it has reoccupied since June, while troop and police reinforcements were deployed in major Israeli cities and mobile checkpoints set up.
Despite the period of relative calm Israel has enjoyed since the last attack on Aug. 4, Sharon has dampened hopes for any revival of peace talks. (The Independent)
