RAMALLAH, West Bank, 21 July 2004 — Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei reached an uneasy truce with veteran leader Yasser Arafat yesterday, refusing to retract his resignation but agreeing to stay in his post for the moment. “There has been no breakthrough. Abu Alaa (Qorei) has not changed his position about resigning,” minister without portfolio Qadura Fares said after Qorei and his Cabinet met with Arafat at his leadership compound here.
“Abu Alaa is prepared to continue in his position for the time being but only until the formation of a new government,” he told AFP. Qorei submitted his resignation on Saturday after a breakdown in law and order in the Gaza strip including an unprecedented spate of kidnappings but Arafat has refused to accept it.
After street protests in Gaza forced him to execute an embarrassing U-turn over his choice of security supremo on Monday, Arafat can ill afford to be seen losing a battle of wills with his prime minister.
International pressure is also growing on Arafat with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan urging him to grasp control of the situation by working with Qorei.
Arafat’s top aide Nabil Abu Rudeina tried to insist that the standoff between the two men had been resolved in yesterday’s meeting. “At today’s meeting, President Arafat repeated his refusal to accept Abu Alaa’s resignation and he renewed his confidence in him,” he told reporters.
“The resignation of Abu Alaa has been officially refused and he will remain in his place and the issue is finished.” But negotiations minister Saeb Erekat, an Arafat loyalist, confirmed that the standoff was far from over although he denied it was personal. “President Arafat completely rejected the resignation of Abu Alaa but Abu Alaa is still insisting that he is resigning,” he told AFP.
“The crisis is still ongoing, not because of Abu Alaa’s resignation but because of the reasons behind his resignation. We hope to overcome this crisis as soon as possible in the interests of the Palestinian people.”
The crisis was also expected to be played out on the floor of the Palestinian Parliament today when a committee tasked with investigating security in the territories delivers a report. Former information minister and current MP Nabil Amr said that the atmosphere was likely to be “very hot” and said there was a possibility that deputies would push for a no-confidence motion in the Qorei government.
International pressure was also growing on Arafat with EU foreign policy supremo Javier Solana urging him to yield more power to Qorei after holding talks with Jordanian Foreign Minister Marwan Moasher in Amman. “I think that the manner to tackle the issue (of the Palestinian crisis) is having an efficient PM with power and abilities. What happened in the last few days is a very important signal and everybody should take good note (that) what is needed is order, law, good behavior and vision for the future,” he said.
Meanwhile, a group of between 150 and 200 Jewish extremists are seeking Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s death over his plan to evacuate Gaza, the head of Israel’s domestic Shin Beth security service said yesterday.
Speaking to the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense committee, Avi Dichter said most of the extremists on the list lived in West Bank settlements, although there were also a small number in the Gaza Strip, according to public radio.
“The Shin Beth chief was very clear in his comments. Dozens of people, with the support of some 150 others, want the death of the prime minister, in fact his assassination,” MP Ran Cohen of the opposition Meretz party told the radio. “These people are armed, they are found in several settlements, (Dichter) must stop them,” he said.
The Jewish Settlers’ Council agreed, while also rebuking Sharon whose pullout plan has been bitterly opposed by settlers. “If there is truth to the statements by the Shin Beth chief, he has an obligation to act against those who plot against the prime minister and it is not enough to inform the Knesset,” the council said in a statement.
In another development, Israel attempted to soothe tensions with Paris after Sharon’s call for all Jews to flee France, the home of Europe’s largest Jewish community, prompted Jacques Chirac’s government to cold shoulder the premier.
“There is no crisis between the two countries but rather a cultural misunderstanding which we must try hard from now on to dispel and give ourselves time for reflection,” senior Israeli government spokesman Avi Pazner told AFP.
“For us, the prime minister’s appeal to Jews throughout the world, and not only France, is one of the fundamental ideologies of the state of Israel, while the French have seen it as something else,” added Pazner who is a former ambassador to Paris.
“The prime minister had no intention of offending anyone and paid tribute to the firm action taken by President Chirac against anti-Semitism.”
Solana said that Sharon’s call to French Jews to quit their country and emigrate to Israel was “offensive.” “It is a bilateral issue, the French governement has decided not to invite Sharon to visit France, because some of the expressions of Sharon were offensive to the government and people of France,” he told reporters in Amman.
