OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 21 November 2003 — A defiant Israel vowed yesterday to ignore a United Nations resolution endorsing the “road map” for peace plan and push on with its West Bank separation barrier despite sharp criticism from US President George W. Bush.
Trade Minister Ehud Olmert, the official No. 2 to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, said Israel does not feel bound by the Security Council’s unanimous resolution on the internationally-backed road map.
“It is possible that we will hold talks with the new Palestinian government on the basis of the road map but ... Israel does not feel that it is bound by the resolution,” he told public radio.
Despite strong objections from Israel and initial opposition from the United States, the council voted unanimously for the Russian-backed resolution to put its stamp of approval on the plan, which envisages a Palestinian state by 2005.
But a government statement said Israel would only accept judgment from the United States on how the road map was being implemented. “Israel will not accept any other intervention in implementing the plan,” it added.
The Palestinians welcomed the resolution passed late Wednesday, but said what they called Israel’s “refusal” to implement the road map should result in sanctions. “We appeal to the quartet (the United States, United Nations, European Union and Russia) to take practical measures by declaring sanctions against Israel for its refusal to implement the road map,” said Nabil Abu Rudeina, the chief adviser to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.
“The fact that Israel insists on conditions and the fact that it is not applying the roadmap proves that it is looking to sabotage all efforts at finding peace in the region,” he charged. The road map, sponsored by the diplomatic quartet and launched in June, was grudgingly accepted by Israel but the government said it would seek modifications.
The Arab League hailed the resolution. The 22-member league “welcomes the unanimous adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 1515 backing the road map for a settlement of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict,” the Cairo-based organization’s spokesman Hossam Zaki said.
The resolution “represents a unanimous and unequivocal international message showing that the international community firmly supports the settlement of this conflict through two states living side by side,” Zaki said.
Israel has been accused of flouting the road map by inviting tenders last month for the building of 323 apartments in the West Bank. The Israeli anti-settlement watchdog Peace Now also released a report earlier this week saying there were now 103 settlement outposts in the West Bank.
Sharon acknowledged differences with the United States after Bush’s speech during a state visit to London. “It is true that there are issues which we do not see the same way, but the special nature of our friendship allows for our friendship to continue even when we are not in agreement on everything,” he told Israeli TV.
Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said construction would continue apace, insisting the project was merely designed to prevent attacks. “We are doing everything we can to put up this fence that will prevent infiltrations,” he said.
Meanwhile, an Arab Israeli lawmaker Wednesday accused the Israeli military of using a “banned weapon” in a deadly raid in the Gaza Strip in October, as another deputy threatened to reveal confidential information on the attack. Opposition MP Ahmad Al-Tibi said the army had used a “secret banned weapon” in the raid and accused it of employing military censorship to stop the publication of details related to the issue.
“This concerns banned munitions whose explosion had an impact that extended over several dozen meters,” he said in a statement. Twelve Palestinians, including two wanted activists, were killed in the Israeli raid on Oct. 20, which targeted a car in the Gaza Strip refugee camp of Nusseirat.
“Air Force commander Dan Halutz lied in public when he said after the raid that the Air Force used Hellfire missiles that were fired by Apache helicopters. It was not Apaches that launched the banned weapon,” he charged. Fellow member of Parliament Yossi Sarid, of the left-wing Meretz party, threatened to unveil “confidential information” over the Nusseirat raid.
Sarid made his threat after Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz refused to tell him the type weapons used in the raid, during a meeting of Parliament’s defense and foreign affairs committee, according to the Haaretz daily.
Palestinian factions will meet in Cairo on Dec. 2 to continue talks on a suspension of anti-Israeli attacks, senior officials from Islamic groups said yesterday. An Egyptian team of mediators that held a first round of truce talks on Wednesday in Gaza City handed the invitations to all Palestinian factions, the sources said. “An invitation was given to us for a dialogue to be held in Cairo on Dec. 2,” senior Islamic Jihad leader Khaled Al-Batsh told AFP.
