Kingdom Calls for Total Israeli Pullout

Author: 
Arab News
Publication Date: 
Tue, 2005-08-16 03:00

JEDDAH, 16 August 2005 — Saudi Arabia yesterday called upon Israel to withdraw its forces from all Palestinian territory, and renewed its commitment to a land-for-peace offer to the Jewish state.

“The Kingdom looks forward to the Israeli pullout from the Gaza Strip being a step followed by other steps toward withdrawal from all occupied Palestinian territories so that the Palestinian people can establish their state with Jerusalem as its capital,” said a statement issued after the weekly Cabinet meeting.

The Cabinet meeting, chaired by King Abdullah, affirmed the Kingdom’s commitment to the peace initiative put forward by Abdullah when he was crown prince to the Arab summit held in Beirut in 2002 and adopted by the summit, thus becoming an Arab peace initiative, said the statement, carried by the Saudi Press Agency.

The Beirut meeting of Arab heads of state endorsed the plan, offering Israel peace and normal ties in return for its withdrawal from occupied Arab lands. Israel began a historic operation yesterday to pull out of the Gaza Strip after 38 years of occupation.

The Cabinet said the Arab peace initiative, based on UN resolutions, provided a credible framework for a just and comprehensive settlement of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

The meeting also warned against “the threats by extremist Jewish groups to break into Al-Aqsa Mosque and attack it, stressing such threats constitute a provocation of Muslim feelings and violation of their sanctities.” Israel beefed up security around the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem over the weekend to foil plans by extremist Jews to take over the third holiest site in Islam in a bid to scuttle the Gaza pullout.

At the outset of the Cabinet meeting, King Abdullah thanked world leaders for sending delegates and messages to express condolences on the death of King Fahd. He received former South African President Nelson Mandela who came to offer his condolences.

The Cabinet meeting condemned the assassination of Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar. “Saudi Arabia rejects all forms of terrorism, which has no religion or nation,” the Cabinet statement said.

The Cabinet authorized Interior Minister Prince Naif to hold talks with his Russian counterpart to reach an agreement on the extradition of suspects and convicted criminals. It licensed Shuaiba Water & Electricity Company for the building, operation and maintenance of Shuaiba-3 desalination plant.

Meanwhile, Israel yesterday completely evacuated two of the four settlements in the West Bank weeks ahead of schedule.

Addressing the nation, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon delivered an impassioned defense of his pullout plan, saying he understood the pain of the settlers but warned of an unprecedented response to Palestinians who shunned his “hand of peace”.

Despite scenes of anger and emotion from radical Jewish settlers being uprooted from Gaza, the army announced that the two most northerly settlements of Ganin and Kadim in the West Bank had been completely cleared of residents.

“These are the first two communities to be fully and successfully evacuated,” an army spokeswoman told AFP.

Residents of the two tiny enclaves left voluntarily ahead of schedule, departing for new lives in Israel proper or in other settlements dotted across the West Bank.

“This plan is good for Israel in any future scenario. We are reducing the day-to-day friction and its victims on both sides,” Sharon said in an address to the nation.

But thousands of police and soldiers who poured into Gaza to tell the settlers they had 48 hours to leave or be forcibly evicted from the Mediterranean coastal territory, incurred patches of fierce resistance.

Angry protests prevented police from handing out eviction notices in six of the 21 settlements, an army spokeswoman said.

“Criminal! Shame on the army!” shouted the crowd in the largest settlement of Neve Dekalim as troops tried but failed to hand out eviction notices following a midnight declaration that the presence of all Israelis in Gaza was illegal.

Under the searing summer heat, settlers scuffled with soldiers and police, some on horseback, others armed with water cannon.

“In accordance with the implementation of the disengagement plan 2005 law and following the decision of the Israeli government, you are required to leave your home and the Gaza Strip today,” said the eviction letters.

Sharon, the hawkish former general presiding over the first ever Israeli pullout from occupied Palestinian territory, called on the Palestinians to show the world they were interested in peace.

“Now the Palestinians bear the burden of proof. They must fight terror organizations, dismantle its infrastructure and show sincere intentions of peace in order to sit with us at the negotiating table,” Sharon said.

“The world awaits the Palestinian response — a hand offered in peace or continued terrorist fire. To a hand offered in peace, we will respond with an olive branch. But if they choose fire, we will respond with fire, more severe than ever,” he warned.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan hailed the withdrawal as a “moment of promise and hope” in which success “will demand statesmanship of the highest order”.

But although Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas hailed the “historic” pullout, hopes that it could lead to a breakthrough in the peace process were dashed as Palestinians denounced Israel’s insistence it would keep hold of its West Bank settlement blocs.

Despite the defiance from settlers, the Israeli Army predicted that half of all settler families would have left by today as a leading opponent of the pullout admitted defeat in the nationwide campaign to prevent the evacuation.

“The battle against the withdrawal has failed,” former Cabinet minister Uzi Landau told a news conference. “We are talking about seven to eight hundred families that will leave tomorrow by around midnight,” said Brig. Gen. Eival Gilady.

The operation, codenamed Hand to the Brothers and involving about 40,000 members of the security forces, represents the first time Israel has withdrawn from Palestinian land seized in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War.

The mission, which the Palestinian Authority has pledged to ensure will take place free of attack from militants, could have a lasting impact on the Middle East conflict and reshape Israel’s political landscape.

Abbas insisted that the withdrawal must not be the last step, with the Palestinians seeking to create an independent state in Gaza, the West Bank and east Jerusalem.

“The withdrawals should not only take place in Gaza but the West Bank as well,” he said.

Gaza, a narrow strip of land sandwiched between Israel, Egypt and the Mediterranean, is one of the most densely populated areas on the planet with a Palestinian population of 1.3 million.

Around 7,500 members of the Palestinian security forces are deployed on the perimeter of the settlements in a bid to prevent any rocket attacks by groups such as Hamas which have portrayed the pullout as an act of surrender.

Sharon who was for years seen as the settlers’ ultimate champion as a pioneer of much of the settlement growth, believes his plan will enable Israel to retain control of West Bank, home to the vast majority of the 245,000 settlers.

— With input from agencies

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