OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 4 February 2004 — One day after announcing his intention to dismantle all Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon dropped another bombshell yesterday, saying Israel was considering redrawing Israel’s borders to place parts of the country’s Arab population under Palestinian control in exchange for settlements.
A senior Israeli official stressed that any such move would have to be accepted by Israeli Arabs and come only as part of a final treaty with the Palestinians.
However, the idea threatened to arouse the deepest fears of Israel’s Arab minority and drew immediate criticism from an Israeli Arab leader.
Many Israeli Arabs, while supporting the Palestinian cause, want to remain in Israel, both because of the higher standard of living and concerns that a future Palestinian state may not be democratic.
Roughly 20 percent of Israel’s 6.6 million citizens are Arabs. Unlike their Palestinian counterparts in the West Bank and Gaza, which Israel captured in 1967, Israeli Arabs have the right to vote, receive Israeli social services and can work inside Israel.
Relations with the Jewish majority, however, are often tense. Israeli Arabs have higher unemployment rates and lower incomes than Jews, and complain of frequent discrimination. In October 2000, Israeli police killed 13 Israeli Arabs during riots that followed the outbreak of intifada.
In return, Israel would seek parts of the West Bank, where more than 200,000 Israeli settlers live among some 2 million Palestinians.
Sharon was quoted in the Maariv daily as saying he was examining a possible population exchange with the help of drawing a border between Israel and a future Palestinian state. The senior Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said exchanging populations is “an old method that has been used elsewhere.” “It’s not a plan for now,” the official said. “It will only be on the agenda when there is an agreement between the two sides... If we come to an agreement with the Palestinians, then it will be raised.”
Ahmed Tibi, an Israeli Arab lawmaker, said he opposes the idea. “We are talking about a dangerous, anti-democratic suggestion, which will bring about a schism between the state and its Arab citizens,” Tibi said. He said residents of Israel’s Arab towns “are not pawns that Sharon can play with.”
The new comments came as members of Sharon’s government digested his announcement that all Jews would be pulled out of Gaza, a move which the premier said was vital to the survival of the state.
Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei described Sharon’s Gaza plan as “good news”. “Of course, it is good news for us,” Qorei told Voice of Palestine radio,. “We hope that Israel will withdraw from all Palestinian areas.”
Settler leaders in Gaza threatened to try to bring down Sharon’s coalition government, but the prime minister remained defiant and said he would find other partners if the hard-line parties in his coalition ditched him.
Sharon said he needed to “look ahead, not backward.” “It’s complicated, there is already a second generation of settlers there, and they have children, and there are thousands of dunums of hothouses, packing plants, schools, factories, thousands of residents there, I know them closely, but I will look them in the eye,” said Sharon.
