OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 23 January 2004 — Despite the threat of indictment over a bribe scandal, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon insisted he will not resign even though opinion polls showed yesterday that a majority of Israelis believe he is guilty.
In violence in the Gaza Strip, a 12-year-old Palestinian boy was shot dead by Israeli troops.
“I will continue to be prime minister next year. All the rumors about my eventual resignation or about a voluntary suspension of my functions are just foolishness,” Sharon was quoted as saying after Wednesday’s indictment of property developer David Appel.
Appel was charged with trying to bribe then foreign minister Sharon through his son Gilad, along with Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, then mayor of Jerusalem, in exchange for their help in securing a major Greek property deal.
The radio said judicial officials could decide in the coming weeks whether there are grounds to indict Sharon himself, after additional material is examined and the premier interrogated again.
And the daily Haaretz revealed that acting attorney general Edna Arbel believed there was enough evidence to indict Sharon for having received bribes from Appel, although the final decision is up to the next attorney general.
If indicted, Sharon could be forced to step down before his mandate ends in 2007.
Opinion polls yesterday revealed that most Israelis believe their premier is guilty of involvement in corruption. A survey published in the Israeli daily Maariv showed that 53 percent of the respondents thought he was guilty and 63 percent said he should resign if proven so.
Haaretz ran similar results, with a towering 64 percent of those polled saying Sharon should quit if his involvement in the scandal is proved, and 68 percent saying the premier was not innocent.
A survey in the mass circulation Yediot Aharonot showed even harsher results, with 49 percent saying Sharon needs to step down regardless of the inquiry’s findings. Thirty-eight percent said they believe Sharon should remain in office and 13 percent had no opinion.
The Palestinian leadership, meanwhile, said it feared Sharon could use the looming bribery scandal against them, “to divert attention and avoid facing the truth.”
“We are warning against the possibility that Ariel Sharon take advantage of this corruption scandal to embark on a military adventure in the Palestinian territories or somewhere else in the region,” Yasser Arafat’s top aide Nabil Abu Rudeina said.
Israeli left-wing MP Yossi Sarid voiced concern that Sharon, “under pressure,” could be tempted by rash actions on the Israeli-Arab front to distract public opinion. It has so far only been alleged that Appel tried to secure the help of Sharon and Olmert to otain an authorization from the Greek authorities to build a huge tourism resort on a Greek island.
On the ground in the central Gaza Strip, Israeli troops shot dead Mohsen Ad-Daur yesterday, Palestinian medics said. Palestinian security sources said the boy was part of a group of teenagers hunting birds near the border fence with Israel.
An army spokesman said two teenagers had been wounded and were being treated in Israel after they tried to cross into Israel with a ladder propped up against the fence.
Farther south, the Israeli Army withdrew from the Rafah refugee camp after a 48-hour operation during which several dozen Palestinian houses were destroyed, security sources on both sides said.
Israeli troops yesterday forced the mother of a wanted Palestinian activist to beg her son to surrender and then blew up the house in which he was allegedly hiding, Palestinian security officials and witnesses said in Nablus.
“Imad if you are inside, give yourself up,” pleaded Sanaa Akkubeh, 50, through a loudspeaker mounted on a military jeep. Some 20 jeeps backed by armored vehicles and two bulldozers surrounded the Akkubeh’s family house in this West Bank town in a bid to arrest Imad Akkubeh, 32, the sources said. The residents were evacuated to a storage room at the time of the raid, and the army later dynamited the three-story Nablus house, which was home to 40 people or six families.
