JERUSALEM, 14 September 2004 — Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon faced a surprise challenge yesterday to his plan to expedite a pullout from Gaza when Benjamin Netanyahu, his main rival in the Likud party, called for a referendum on the issue. Analysts saw Netanyahu’s bid, coming right after an angry rally by 70,000 opponents of the plan, as an attempt to delay a withdrawal of settlers and soldiers that the Israeli leader hopes to complete by the end of 2005.
“I propose, not as a condition, but as something I believe can preserve national unity, an accelerated referendum process in which one question will be posed: ‘Do you support or oppose the government’s decision for a phased disengagement’?” said Finance Minister Netanyahu, a former prime minister.
Netanyahu said he was confident Israelis, in line with opinion polls showing strong support for quitting Gaza, would vote in favor of withdrawing. But a senior political source, who declined to be identified, said: “When Sharon examined the (possibility of a referendum), he saw it wouldn’t fit into his deadline and would take at least six months to arrange.”
Political sources said Sharon remained opposed to a referendum on ending Israel’s 37-year-old occupation of Gaza and would stick to his intention to win cabinet and preliminary parliamentary approval by November 3 for a pullout. Around 8,000 settlers live in hard-to-defend enclaves among 1.3 million Palestinians in the tiny coastal territory.
Israel’s military pursued a campaign against Palestinian militants, killing three members of a group linked to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat’s Fatah faction in an air strike in the West Bank city of Jenin. One of those killed was the local deputy leader of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which has been involved in a four-year-old revolt against Israeli occupation in Gaza and the West Bank, residents said.
Thousands of Palestinians shouted for revenge against Israel and gunmen fired rifles into the air at a funeral march after the yesterday afternoon attack in Jenin, witnesses said. An Israeli aircraft fired a missile at a West Bank car yesterday killing a leader of a Palestinian group linked to Fatah faction and two comrades.
Witnesses said three men were in the car when it was attacked in the center of the northern West Bank city of Jenin, and all were killed while several passersby were wounded. The Palestinian Authority said the dead men were members of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. One of the dead men was the deputy Brigades leader in Jenin, Mahmoud Abu Khalifeh.
A military spokeswoman said that three militants were killed, including Abu Khalifeh, whom Israel accuses of involvement in plotting large attacks against Israelis. “I saw a small plane and then a flash of light, then I heard a huge explosion and a car went up in flames,” Abdel Karim Abdel Rahman, a witness, told Reuters of the strike launched near the Jenin municipality.
In another development, the Brigades yesterday ordered a private university in this town to close, saying the move was in protest at interference by Palestinian security services. The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades said in a statement it had decided to shut down Jenin’s Arab American University.
It mentioned, among other things, what it called the harassment of university manager Zaher Barahmeh by security agents who tried to force his resignation. A university spokesman confirmed that the university had closed following “internal problems”.
The university released a statement saying it supported the Brigades’ decision and would close “until further notice” as it denounced “the blatant interference of intelligence services” in its affairs.
It also demanded a public apology from the services for having questioned Barahmeh’s integrity.
Also yesterday, Israel shut Palestinian voter registration offices in Arab East Jerusalem that had been opened in advance of an as-yet unscheduled Palestinian general election, Israeli and Palestinian officials said.
Hazem Balousha, a Palestinian public information officer, told Reuters that six voter registration centers opened earlier this month had been shut and nine employees were detained.
Gil Kleiman, a spokesman for Israeli police, said that four women were being held, and that the offices had been shut after police found evidence “they were carrying out illegal polling activities.” The registration drive is one of the first concrete steps taken by the Palestinians to meet international and domestic demands for reforms.
PA is planning municipal elections in November, a vote expected to be a test of strength between militant groups and the PA. About 1,000 registration centers have been opened in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem for presidential and legislative elections which are nearly four years overdue.
