JERUSALEM, 14 April 2004 — The ruling Likud party yesterday delayed its referendum on a withdrawal from the Gaza Strip by three days to May 2, fearing a basketball championship game would have kept too many voters at home.
The agonizing over logistics reflected the difficulties Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is facing in trying to sell the plan to his hawkish party. Backers of the plan were concerned that many of those who did not feel strongly would rather watch the game than vote “yes,” while the ideological core of the party would vote “no” in any case.
In other developments, Israeli troops backed by armored vehicles raided a five-story apartment building early yesterday in the West Bank city of Nablus, ransacking every apartment in the building in a search for a wanted Hamas fighter, Palestinian witnesses said.
The raid sparked a shootout with Palestinians, and windows were shot out by the gunfire. The army said it arrested two men. No casualties were reported on either side.
In the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian court convicted three men of raping and murdering a 16-year-old girl and sentenced them to death in a case that has generated a massive public outcry in the Gaza Strip. A fourth defendant was sentenced to life in prison.
The death sentences would be carried out only if Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat gives his final approval. Arafat has commuted some death penalties and approved others.
Also yesterday, the Israeli Defense Ministry halted construction of a section of Israel’s West Bank separation wall northwest of Jerusalem. The Supreme Court has ordered construction of the section to be halted while it considers a challenge to the route of the barrier. The ministry said it had misunderstood the court order and stopped work “once the misunderstanding was cleared up.”
Sharon has proposed uprooting all 21 Jewish settlements in Gaza, as well as four settlements in the West Bank, as part of his plan to separate Israelis and Palestinians in the absence of progress toward a peace agreement. In return, Sharon hopes to expand five large blocs of Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
Sharon traveled to the United States yesterday looking for an endorsement from President George W. Bush.
Ahead of a meeting with Sharon today, Bush gave only qualified support. He said on Monday that the pullout must be part of a peace agreement that would establish an independent Palestinian state.
The Palestinians have also demanded that the Gaza pullout be accompanied by a much larger West Bank withdrawal. More than 230,000 Israelis live in some 140 settlements in the West Bank. The Palestinians want all of Gaza and the West Bank for their future state and demand that all the settlements be dismantled.
Speaking at a West Bank settlement before leaving for Washington, Sharon said Israel would keep the five blocs where almost half the West Bank settlers live, and linked that to his Gaza pullout proposal.
But Sharon’s biggest immediate challenge is persuading his own Likud party to support him. Likud, like Sharon himself, has been a main backer of settlement construction for decades.
Several leading Likud figures oppose the withdrawal plan and have begun campaigning against it. Former Defense Minister Moshe Arens joined the list of opponents yesterday.
