RAMALLAH, West Bank: Israel has informed the Palestinian Authority (PA) that it will not authorize the operation of a second cellular phone network until the PA withdraws its demand that the International Criminal Court in The Hague investigate alleged Israeli war crimes in the Gaza Strip, as documented in the Goldstone Commission report, the daily Haaretz said Sunday.
The issue of a second cellular provider is at the center of talks between the PA, the international Quartet and Israel and has been ongoing for months. Currently the sole provider is Pal-Tel and Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad considers the introduction of another carrier as an important step in improving the civilian infrastructure in the West Bank. The project is central to Wataniya Palestine, the company that is set to serve as the second provider, and profits are expected to be substantial.
But if the project is not approved by Oct. 15, the PA will be forced to pay a penalty estimated at $300 million, the sum that has already been invested in licensing and infrastructure.
Wataniya Palestine is owned by Kuwait’s National Mobile Telecommunications Co. (Wataniya), a unit of Qatar Telecommunications Co. (Qtel) as well as a holding company for Palestinian public assets.
Western diplomats, including the Quartet’s envoy to the region, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and the US ambassador to Israel, James Cunningham, have made it clear to senior Israeli officials that time is running out, and have urged them to allow the establishment of a second provider to go forward.
Israel’s objections begin with the issue of transmission frequencies. The frequencies that the Palestinians want the new company to use are very close to ones used by the Israeli military in some of its most sensitive activities. Palestinian officials have complained that Israel’s demands are excessive and that Israel wants the new company to use some of Pal-Tel’s frequencies for its operations.
Those Israeli reservations turned into full-blown opposition, especially from many Israeli defense officials, after Fayyad and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas demanded that the International Criminal Court at The Hague prosecute Israeli soldiers for war crimes. Israeli Army Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, among others, have fired off letters to the PA demanding that the Authority withdraw its appeal to the court. Among the sanctions both have agreed to, the letters said, is the quashing of the Wataniya project.
Ashkenazi has been busy trying to avert action against Israeli officers after the Goldstone Commission released its report two weeks ago accusing the Israeli forces of committed war crimes in the Gaza Strip early this year.
The report cited Israeli defense officials as saying that the PA itself had encouraged Israel to attack their rival Hamas movement in Gaza even more fiercely than the Israeli Army had planned. “The PA has reached a point where it has to decide whether it is working with us or against us,” a defense official told Haaretz.
A senior Palestinian official told Arab News that the collapse of the mobile bargain will reduce chances of foreign investment in the Palestinian territories and will prevent the Palestinians from 3,000 job opportunities.
