JERUSALEM, 20 October 2004 — Palestinian Authority officials remain doubtful that the Israeli prime minister’s plan to withdraw from Gaza will go ahead given the fierce opposition the project has stirred among extreme right-wingers and Jewish settlers. “The extreme right-wing which (Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon has always supported, has taken the political decision-making process hostage,” Palestinian deputy Hanan Ashrawi told AFP yesterday.
Skeptical about Sharon’s true intentions, she believes he is the one profiting from the political crisis provoked by his plan, with Israel strengthening its hold over the West Bank even though it has yet to withdraw from the Gaza Strip. “Sharon is deflecting world attention by means of these internal conflicts with the right-wing in order to gain time and continue construction of the wall in the West Bank,” she said, referring to Israel’s vast separation barrier.
“Sharon’s plan serves the interests of the extremists and the settlers because in return for the withdrawal from Gaza, he is going to strengthen the settlements in the West Bank and prevent the creation of a Palestinian state while getting rid of the security burden of Gaza,” she said.
Under terms of Sharon’s so-called disengagement plan, all 21 settlements in Gaza and another four in the northern West Bank are to be evacuated next year, while at the same time the Jewish state strengthens its hold on large settlement blocs elsewhere in the West Bank.
Following the adoption of his plan by the Cabinet in June, Sharon lost his parliamentary majority and is now facing fierce opposition from within his own right-wing Likud party.
Officially, the Palestinian Authority, which has been excluded from any involvement in the Gaza plan, appears to be “unconcerned” by the political unrest facing Sharon, who has refused to call a referendum or early elections.
“All these problems do not concern us. All that interests us is seeing an Israeli government which is capable of taking decisions, like that of (the assassinated Prime Minister) Yitzhak Rabin,” said Nabil Abu Rudeina, a key adviser to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.
Israel’s opposition leader Shimon Peres said yesterday he feared Israeli extremists might try to assassinate Sharon. Peres, head of the center-left Labour party, said the divisive atmosphere recalled the climate when Rabin was killed in 1995 by an ultranationalist Jew opposed to his peace deals with the Palestinians.
“I am very fearful of the incitement, of the harsh things that are being said,” Peres, Israel’s leading dove and a key supporter of Sharon’s pullout plan, told the daily Ma’ariv. “I fear that someone will try to assassinate the prime minister,” he was quoted as saying.
Jewish settlers in occupied Gaza and the West Bank once saw Sharon as their champion but now brand him a traitor. Settler leaders boycotted a meeting with the prime minister aimed at calming tensions over his “disengagement” plan. The snub came a day after Sharon faced rebellious lawmakers of his own extremist rightist Likud who warned the party could split unless he put the pullout plan to a national referendum. Sharon bought time by agreeing to a task force to consider the matter.
Meanwhile, the United Nations children’s fund, UNICEF, began distributing 40,000 schoolbags to youngsters in the Gaza Strip yesterday as classes resumed at the end of a massive Israeli offensive in the territory. “The school bags are a token of support that give a sense of normalcy in the lives of children, a sense of no matter the circumstance, education must continue” said Dan Rohrmann, UNICEF special representative for the Palestinian territories. “Children’s right to education must be upheld.”
The distribution of the school bags was timed to coincide with the resumption of classes at the end of a two-closure sparked by Israel’s assault in northern Gaza which left 129 Palestinians dead, the statement added. School bags would also be given to children in the southern Gaza Strip.
