MAY 2004

Sunday May 23, 2004

Saturday May 22, 2004

Monday May 19, 2004

Security Council adopts resolution condemning killing of civilians

By The Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS - With the United States abstaining, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution early Thursday calling on Israel to stop the demolition of Palestinian homes and condemning the killing of Palestinian civilians near the Rafah refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip.

The decision by the U.S. to allow the adoption of a critical resolution reflected the Bush administration's displeasure at Israel's foray into Gaza.

The final vote was 14-0, with U.S. deputy ambassador James Cunningham abstaining.

The last time the U.S. abstained in a Security Council vote against Israeli actions was in September 24, 2002, when a resolution calling on Israel to withdraw its forces from Palestinian cities passed 14-0. The United States refrained from vetoing the resolution after language demanding that the Palestinians bring terrorists to justice was inserted.

The resolution expresses grave concern at "the recent demolition of homes committed by Israel, the occupying power, in the Rafah refugee camp." It "calls on Israel to respect its obligations under international humanitarian law and insists, in particular, on its obligation not to undertake demolition of homes contrary to that law."

Israel's UN Ambassador Dan Gillerman said he was disappointed at the council, which took no action when Israelis were killed. He contended seven Palestinians were killed on Wednesday, of which four to five were armed demonstrators.

Gillerman said high-quality weapons were being smuggled into Gaza, some of them through tunnels on the Egyptian border.

"In fact, the whole of Gaza, and Rafah in particular, is on the verge of becoming a missile base aimed at Israel's cities and civilians," he said. "What would the international community have Israel do? Just sit back and wait for this horrific scenario to materialize?"

Palestinian UN observer Nasser al-Kidwa told the council Israel killed innocent children, a telling illusion of the "vicious and barbaric behavior and actions of this occupying power," by firing at least one missile into the crowd.

"This is, of course an attempt to isolate the Gaza Strip from the outside world, ensuring that it has no border with Egypt, and thus ensuring the creation of a large prison for the Palestinian civilian population in Gaza," Kidwa said.

United Nations S/RES/1544 (2004) Security Council Distr.: General

2. Expresses grave concern regarding the humanitarian situation of Palestinians made homeless in the Rafah area and calls for the provision of emergency assistance to them;

Rafah missile strike prompts widespread condemnation

By Haaretz Service and News Agencies

The White House early Thursday rebuked Israel over its military actions in the Gaza Strip, saying they do not "serve the purposes of peace and security."

"While we believe that Israel has the right to act to defend itself and its citizens, we do not see that its operations in Gaza in the last few days serve the purposes of peace and security," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said in a written statement.

"They have worsened the humanitarian situation and resulted in confrontations between Israeli forces and Palestinians, and have not, we believe, enhanced Israel's security," he added.

U.S. President George Bush on Wednesday urged "restraint" by Israel and Palestinians. "I continue to urge restraint," Bush told reporters following a Cabinet meeting in the Roosevelt Room. "It is essential that people respect innocent life in order for us to achieve peace."

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said late on Wednesday that Israel`s actions in Gaza would make it more difficult for the U.S. to move the peace process forward.

Powell spoke by telephone to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's bureau chief Dov Weisglass and to Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom. Powell said he planned to also talk to Palestinian leaders.

"Israel has explained it was not a planned act," Powell told reporters at the State Department. "Nevertheless, it does not assist us in trying to move forward."

The United Nations' special human rights envoy for the West Bank and Gaza Strip said Wednesday that the Rafah strikes were war crimes and a violation of humanitarian law, and that the Security Council should consider imposing an arms embargo against Israel just as it had against the apartheid regime in South Africa in 1977.

"These actions constitute...war crimes...They also amount to collective punishment which violates both humanitarian law and international human rights law," said South African law professor John Dugard in a statement.

"The special rapporteur calls on the Security Council to take appropriate action to stop the violence, if necessary by the imposition of a mandatory arms embargo," he added.

The European Union slammed Wednesday's attack as "completely disproportionate" and as showing "a reckless disregard for human life".

In one of his strongest condemnations yet of recent Israeli actions against Palestinians, Irish Foreign Minister Brian Cowen, speaking on behalf of the EU presidency, cited initial reports suggesting many children were among the casualties.

"It is clear that today's action was completely disproportionate to any threat faced by the Israeli military and that Israeli forces showed a reckless disregard for human life," he said in a statement.

"The targeting of innocent children in a conflict of this kind must always be condemned," he said. "The killing of children does not serve any legitimate cause and degrades any purpose which it purports to advance."

Opposition MKs on Wednesday demanded that the IDF immediately suspend its operation in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip following the deadly attack.

Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia condemned Israeli action in the Gaza Strip and called for a cease-fire, but said the Israeli government showed no desire for peace.

Qureia said, after meeting Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero in Madrid, that "peace needs an immediate cease-fire, needs compliance with United Nations resolutions and needs good intentions from both sides".

"These crimes committed daily against our people... show there exists no desire for peace on the part of this Israeli government," Qureia said.

Palestinian Chairman Yasser Arafat called the attack as a 'genocide'. "This is a war crime. This is genocide. A crime that has
been committed against civilians who were out demonstrating peacefully... What is required is an immediate cessation of the assault, the punishing of those responsible and the sending of international forces," he said Wednesday.

The Knesset was in session when news of the missile strike broke.

Shinui chairman Yosef Lapid described the incident as a human tragedy and political tragedy, caused by the IDF's presence in the Gaza Strip. "Written all over this tragedy is the fact that this situation cannot go on," Lapid said.

MK Mohammed Barakeh (Hadash) termed the Rafah missile strike a "massacre" and called for international intervention.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz and Chief of Staff Moshe Ya'alon should face an international tribunal, MK Azmi Bishara (Balad) said, adding that they should be forced to explain their actions.

MK Ahmed Tibi (Hadash) said that the defense minister, chief of staff and the pilot who fired the missiles should all be put on trial. Tibi got so upset at the news of the events in Rafah, he had to be examined by the Knesset resident doctor.

MK Yuli Tamir (Labor) said that the operation in Rafah should be halted immediately, before it turns into another Lebanon.

Meretz MK Ran Cohen called on the IDF to stop the killing and get out of Rafah.

Fellow Meretz MK, Roman Bronfman said that the army does not discern between protesters and terrorists.

Another Meretz MK, Avshalom Vilan, said the order to fire on the protesters was illegal, while fellow party member Zahava Gal-On said the soldiers should have refused to carry out the order.

MK Yuval Steinitz (Likud) said the events were "tragic" but one must remember that the Palestinians frequently send civilians into dangerous areas on purpose.

The Palestinian Authority called on the United Nations Security Council to take sanctions against Israel, and to decide on measures against Israel in Wednesday evening's session to discuss three resolutions calling on Israel to halt the operation.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair called the Rafah operation "unacceptable and wrong" while Moscow slammed what it called a "disproportionate use of force."

Left-wing activists protest against Rafah incident

Hundreds of left-wing activists on Wednesday staged demonstrations in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Haifa in protest over the Rafah attack in which eight Palestinian protestors were killed by the Israel Defense Forces.

The Tel Aviv rally was held across the street from the Ministry of Defense. The protest was organized by the Courage to Refuse group along with other left-wing organizations.

The protestors marched from the defense ministry to Masarik Square, waving black flags and signs that read "Philadelphi route - a death trap," and shouting: "This is an army that has lost its moral legitimacy." Ten protestors were arrested in clashes with police forces after they blocked a street. Among those arrested was reserve Captain David Zonenshein - one of the initiators of the officers' letter of refusal to serve in the territories.

Dozens of protesters demonstrated near the prime minister's official residence in Jerusalem. In Haifa a few dozen Jewish and Arab protesters held a rally against the Gaza attack, playing out a mock house demolition.

Powell Blasts Gaza Foray

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The White House on Wednesday strongly criticized Israel's recent military offensive in Gaza after an attack that killed at least 10 Palestinian demonstrators, saying Israel's actions had worsened the humanitarian situation and not improved its security.

In a statement, the Bush administration said it deeply regretted "the loss of life of innocent Palestinian civilians today in Gaza," and said the deaths "serve as a grim reminder of the wisdom" of Israel pulling out of Gaza.

Secretary of State Colin Powell  also criticized Israel, saying, "The activities of the Israeli defense forces in Gaza in recent days have caused a problem and have worsened the situation."

Initially, President Bush had withheld judgment on the attack, telling reporters earlier Wednesday that he had not had a chance to be briefed on the situation. He did urge restraint by both sides and respect for innocent lives.

Powell, at a later news conference, said Israel's actions in Gaza have made it more difficult for the United States to move the peace process forward.

Late Wednesday, the White House issued a statement that said Israel's operations in Gaza do not serve the purposes of peace and security.

"They have worsened the humanitarian situation and resulted in confrontations between Israeli forces and Palestinians and have not, we believe, enhanced Israel's security," according to the statement, issued by the White House press office without any signature.

Israel should withdraw from Gaza, the White House statement said.

Powell spoke by telephone to Dov Weisglass, who is Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's chief of staff, and to Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom. Powell said he planned to also talk to Palestinian leaders.

"Israel has explained it was not a planned act," Powell told reporters at the State Department. "Nevertheless, it does not assist us in trying to move forward."

His criticism was reflected at the United Nations, where the United States did not veto an Arab resolution condemning Israel's action.

Earlier Wednesday, Israeli Ambassador Daniel Ayalon met with National Security Council officials in Washington while U.S. Ambassador Daniel Kurtzer met in Tel Aviv with Israeli authorities.

The incident threatened to escalate an already tense standoff between Israel and the Palestinians concerning Israel's foray into Gaza. Israel has been accused by the State Department of targeting the homes of Palestinian civilians -- an accusation Israel has denied, saying it was after underground tunnels through which arms were channeled to terror groups.

EU, UN chief denounce home demolitions in Rafah

By Haaretz Service and Agencies

Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged Israel on Monday to stop bulldozing homes in Rafah along the Gaza-Egypt border, saying the demolitions violate international law and inhibit UN refugee workers from doing their jobs.

"I appeal to the Israeli government to stop this destruction, which is against international humanitarian law," Annan told reporters at UN headquarters.

"I am really distressed that the destruction of houses continues," he said.

"It is causing a very difficult and painful situation for the people of Palestine," Annan said, adding that the bulldozing was making it very difficult for UNRWA, the UN Relief and Works Agency that aids Palestinian refugees, to carry out its activities.

The appeal was the second from Annan since Friday, when he condemned Israel's widespread destruction of homes near the Gaza-Egypt border corridor.

EU condemns Gaza house demolitions
European Union foreign ministers on Monday condemned Israel's demolition of Palestinian homes in Gaza and demanded an immediate halt to the action.

"The Council condemned the large scale demolition of Palestinian houses in the Rafah district of Gaza as disproportionate and in conflict with international law," they said in a statement issued at their monthly meeting.

"The Council called on the Israeli government to cease such demolitions immediately."

The EU sought to balance its statement by condemning calls for violence and deploring the inhuman treatment of the remains of Israeli soldiers by Palestinians in Gaza.

The ministers said the demolitions were in conflict with Israel's obligations under the road map peace plan.

French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier urged Israel to pull out of Gaza, as Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has said he wants to, but to do so in a civilized way.

"Withdrawal from Gaza is an important element which is part of the road map," Barnier told a news conference. "But withdrawing from Gaza after destroying Gaza doesn't seem to me to be the right path."

The condemnation came after the Israel Defense Forces launched a major operation to isolate Rafah and its refugee camp as part of measures to crack down on weapons smuggling, and a day after the High Court rejected an appeal by Rafah residents to ban further demolitions.

The EU is a member, with the United States, Russia and the United Nations, of the Quartet of Middle East peace brokers, which drafted the road map unveiled last year by President George W. Bush.

Israel often accuses the EU of being biased towards the Palestinians in the Middle East conflict.

Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom warned his EU counterparts at a meeting in Dublin this month that if the bloc, in its view, took the Palestinian side it would lose its role as a mediator.

Amnesty Int'l: Israel razed 3,000 homes since intifada began

 By Reuters

Amnesty International said Tuesday that Israel has destroyed more than 3,000 Palestinian houses since the second intifada began three-and-a-half years ago, and demanded the army stop razing civilian homes.

Amnesty called on Israel's military to halt demolitions of Palestinian buildings "without absolute military necessity" in a report issued amidst Israeli threats to raze hundreds of houses in the southern Gaza Strip in an assault on militant strongholds.

The rights group, which frequently issues reports critical of Israel, said in its 65-page document that most of the house demolitions were "punitive" measures against innocent civilians.

"House demolitions are usually carried out without warning, often at night, and the occupants are forcibly evicted with no time to salvage their belongings," Amnesty said in its report.

Amnesty's report was issued as Israeli armor massed around southern Gaza's Rafah refugee camp, which has borne the brunt of the demolitions, after the army threatened to raze hundreds of buildings in a militant hotbed near the Egyptian border.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) set up rows of tents to take in civilians fleeing their houses in Rafah ahead of the expected raid.

Amnesty said Israeli forces had destroyed over 2,000 houses in Rafah and damaged some 16,000 since the uprising began. UNRWA said 12,600 Rafah residents had been made homeless.

The Amnesty report also said Israel had dynamited around 500 homes of Palestinians known or suspected of involvement in suicide bombings in a practice the report called "collective punishment" that it said violated international law.

Amnesty also criticized Israel for destroying Palestinian homes constructed without building permits. It accused Israel of systematically denying Palestinians and Israeli-Arabs permission to build in order to grab their land.

Arabs ask for Security Council meeting on Rafah demolitions

By Haaretz Service and The Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS - Arab nations requested an immediate Security Council meeting Monday to consider Israel's widespread destruction of Palestinian homes in the Rafah refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip.

The request comes after international condemnation of last week's demolition of about 100 houses in the camp, leaving about 11,000 Palestinians in Rafah homeless since 2000. The army has said hundreds more houses may be torn down, as Israel wants to widen a military patrol road between Rafah and the Egyptian border after Palestinians blew up an armored vehicle there last week.

Yemen's United Nations Ambassador Abdullah Alsaidi, the current chairman of the Arab Group, sent a letter Monday to Pakistan's UN Ambassador Munir Akram, the current council president, calling on members to take "necessary measures" against Israel for violating international law.

The council scheduled consultations Tuesday afternoon to consider the request.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged Israel on Monday to stop bulldozing homes in Rafah, saying the demolitions violate international law and inhibit UN refugee workers from doing their jobs.

European Union foreign ministers on Monday also condemned the demolition of Palestinian homes in Gaza, demanding an immediate halt to the action, which they said in a statement was "disproportionate and in conflict with international law." The EU sought to balance its statement by condemning calls for violence and deploring the inhuman treatment of the remains of Israeli soldiers by Palestinians in Gaza.

U.S. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said Monday, after a meeting in Berlin with Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia, that the United States had told Israel "that some of their actions don't create the best atmosphere." A senior Palestinian official told Reuters that Qureia appealed to Rice to stop Israel's mass demolition.

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell has also joined international criticism of the plan, saying on a weekend visit to Jordan that Washington opposed "wholesale bulldozing of houses" in Rafah.

"We don't think that is productive," Powell said at the World Economic Forum in Jordan. "We know Israel has a right for self-defense, but the kind of actions that they're taking in Rafah with the destruction of Palestinian homes, we oppose."

Amnesty International released a report Tuesday saying Israel has destroyed more than 3,000 Palestinian houses since the second intifada began three-and-a-half years ago, and demanded the army stop razing civilian homes.

Friday May 14, 2004

Sunday May 9, 2004

Friday May 7, 2004

New UN resolution: Palestinians have 'right to sovereignty'

By Shlomo Shamir, Haaretz Correspondent

NEW YORK - The United Nations General Assembly on Thursday voted 140-6 to approve a resolution that says the Palestinians "have the right to self-determination and to sovereignty over their territory."

The vote was supposed to take place earlier in the day, but it was postponed to allow changes demanded by European countries to an earlier draft proposed by the PLO.

Israel, the United States and four Pacific islands were among the nations that voted against the resolution, while the 11 abstentions included Australia, Peru, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and the Dominican Republic.

According to the draft, "the status of the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, reminds one of military occupation, and affirm, in accordance with the rules and principles of international law and relevant resolutions of the United Nations, including Security Council resolutions, that the Palestinian people have the right to self-determination and to sovereignty over their territory, and that Israel, the occupying power, has only the duties and obligations of an occupying power under the Fourth Geneva Convention."

Earlier Thursday, Israel told the UN that passing a draft resolution affirming Palestinian sovereignty over land outside the Green Line would undermine this week's statement by the Quartet for Mid East peace that borders must be determined bilaterally.

The Quartet - the UN, United States, European Union and Russia - said Tuesday that the issues of borders and refugee settlement must be resolved in final-status negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. Israel maintains that sovereignty over the territories is, likewise, a matter to be negotiated in final-status talks.

The original draft resolution, put forth by Nasser Al-Kidwa, the Palestinian observer to the UN, said the Palestinian nation has the right to self-determination and sole sovereignty over the West Bank and Gaza Strip, including East Jerusalem. This version noted that that Israel, as "the occupying power," has no sovereignty over any part of these territories.

In a statement issued Thursday, Israel said Tuesday's Quartet statement “reaffirms the basic principle that no party should take unilateral action to seek to predetermine issues that can only be resolved through negotiated agreements.” Israel said the General Assembly was being asked to affirm a text undermining a statement to which the UN was a party.

Israel Resumes Funding of Illegal Jewish Settlement Activity

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM - Israel’s attorney general lifted a freeze on funding for illegal Jewish settlement construction in the occupied Palestinian territory, the Israeli “Justice” Ministry said Wednesday. Meanwhile, a new Israeli report has revealed that the Israeli Housing Ministry spent more than $6.6 million on “unauthorized” settlement construction in the West Bank between June 2000 and June 2003.

Last month, Israeli Attorney General Meni Mazuz ordered an unprecedented freeze on funding for settlement construction, charging that settlements were diverting state funds to the settlers’ “unauthorized” outposts.

The Israeli “Justice” Ministry announced Wednesday that Mazuz had lifted last month’s ordered freeze.

Israel is obligated under the so-called “roadmap” peace plan to dismantle dozens of so-called unauthorized West Bank outposts, many of them no more than a trailer on a barren hilltop.

The announcement came hours before the Israeli watchdog state comptroller released a detailed account of how the Housing Ministry funneled about $6.6 million for illegal settlement construction, more than half of it to outposts that have not been “authorized” by the state.

All settlements—whether “authorized” or “unauthorized” by the Jewish state, are deemed illegal under international law.

A new report by Israel’s comptroller released Wednesday and reported by the Washington Post, said that between June 2000 and June 2003, the Housing Ministry signed 77 contracts worth about $6.6 million for work at 33 locations in the West Bank where construction was considered illegal by the Israeli government.

About two-thirds of the money -- roughly $4.1 million -- went to projects at 18 locations that were not within the boundaries of any existing settlements, the report said.

The 18 locations are generally referred to as “settlement outposts,” and they often consist of little more than an uninhabited shipping container on a remote hilltop, marking a spot where Jewish settlers intend to try to establish a settlement.

The outposts give the illegal Jewish settlers and the Israeli occupation troops who protect them a strategic foothold on Palestinian land that sometimes becomes, within a few years, a full-blown settlement with hundreds of Jewish settlers.

The Israeli settlement watchdog Peace Now reported more than one hundred of these outposts and said that around sixty of them were erected during Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s premiership.

The Housing Ministry has been a strong advocate of settlement expansion.

Housing Minister Effie Eitam, a leader of the extremist, pro-settlement National Religious Party, said in a statement Wednesday that he was implementing new spending regulations to ensure that “the construction works that are done via the budget of the ministry are done according to the law and the permits,” the Washington Post reported.

‘Peace Now’ Documents Settlement Activity Since June

The report released Wednesday by State Comptroller Eliezer Goldberg did not include information about settlement and outpost activity since last June, when Sharon officially agreed to the peace plan known as the “roadmap” at a summit attended by Bush in Aqaba, Jordan.

But settlement monitors for Peace Now have documented numerous cases of settlement projects that have been completed since then or are underway.

“Since June 2003, tens of other infrastructure projects are going on in the West Bank that the government has paid for which are not legal,” said Dror Etkes, head of Peace Now’s settlement watch program.

“Every outpost that was not dismantled is growing, this way or the other, and it is being done out of the public treasury,” Etkes said.

According to Israeli government statistics, there were 223,400 Jewish settlers living in the West Bank at the end of 2003, up by about 10,500 (4.9 percent) from a year earlier. The illegal Israeli population in the West Bank has risen about 20 percent since Sharon took office in March 2001.

Israeli figures exclude more than 15 settlements and more than 200,000 settlers in Jerusalem, which is an integral part of the Palestinian Territory occupied by the Jewish state in June 1967, according to the UN Security Council resolutions, mainly 242 and 338.

There are also 22 settlements and more than 7,000 settlers in the Gaza Strip.

A US official declined to respond to the findings in the Israeli report but said the American position on illegal outposts is well known.

“Consistent with the roadmap, settlement activity is to be frozen, and certainly illegal outposts even more so,” the US official said on condition of anonymity, AP reported.

Settlers Occupy Houses in Jerusalem, Expand in Gaza

On Monday, about 150 Israeli Jewish settlers, backed by dozens of Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF), occupied two Palestinian houses in the eastern Jerusalem neighborhood of Abu Dis in the West Bank, Palestinian sources said.

Some of the settlers who occupied the houses were members of the Jewish settlers’ movement of Atirat Kohanim, which calls for expelling the Palestinians out of Israel and the Palestinian
territories and the demolition of Al Aqsa Mosque, Islam’s third holiest site, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.

The settlers claimed that they had bought the two houses with the land, and threatened Palestinian owners that there would be no opportunity to appeal to the Israeli high court of justice.

On March 31, some 40 Jews illegally settled in the occupied Arab east Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan.

In the Gaza Strip, about 150 illegal settlers gathered Monday under Israeli flags to lay the cornerstone for 22 new settlement housing units in the coastal settlement of “Neve Dekalim” in the “Gush Katif” settlement bloc.

World Can’t be Held Hostage by Israeli Settlers: Spain

On Monday, Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos accused Israeli settlers of obstructing peace, after a large majority of supporters of the ruling Likud party rejected a proposal that Israel withdraw unilaterally from the Gaza Strip.

The fate of six million Israelis and three million Palestinians hung on the decision of the settlers who “do not want to leave Gaza or the West Bank and are blocking all momentum towards peace,” Moratinos told Telecino television on Monday.

The international community “can no longer be held hostage by so few people,” said Moratinos, once the EU’s special envoy to the Middle East.

Official results of a referendum held in Israel on Sunday showed that 59.5 percent of Likud voters who took part opposed a plan by Prime Minister Sharon to withdraw unilaterally from the Gaza Strip.

About 96,700 registered party members, or 40 percent of the total, took part in the ballot and 39.7 percent approved the plan.

“The international community should take its responsibilities because we cannot support the policy of settlement of territories occupied by Israel. This must be said clearly,” Moratinos stressed.

Source: Palestine Media Center (PMC)

Wednesday May 5, 2004

UN to support Palestinian sovereignty over E. J'lem

By Shlomo Shamir, Haaretz Correspondent

The United Nations General Assembly is expected on Thursday to approve a resolution put forth by Nasser Al-Kidwa, the Palestinian observer to the UN, according to which the Palestinian nation has the right to self-determination and sole sovereignty over the West Bank and Gaza Strip, including East Jerusalem.

The resolution notes that Israel, as "the occupying power," has no sovereignty over any part of the aforementioned areas.

Al-Kidwa submitted the resolution to the UN so as to receive from the General Assembly a political declaration that will serve as a counterbalance to the letter of understanding given to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon by President George W. Bush last month, regarding the prime minister's plans to remove settlements from the Gaza Strip.

Bush said Wednesday that he continues to support Sharon's disengagement plan. He regarded the plan as step towards peace in the Middle East. Bush ruled out the claim that his support for the plan prior to the Likud referendum on Sunday was a mistake, and said that the U.S. should take steps towards peace.

It was reported Monday that Bush has no plans to present a letter to Jordan's King Abdullah that would balance the commitments given to Sharon. Sources in the U.S. administration said that the possibility of transferring a "balancing letter" to King Abdullah was no longer an option.

Had it been presented, the letter would have stressed U.S. commitment to the road map.

Tuesday May 4, 2004

U.S.: Defeat withdrawal referendum is 'setback' for Sharon

By Gideon Alon, Haaretz Correspondent, Haaretz Service and News Agencies

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is considering the option of evacuating just five settlements as part of his revised disengagement, instead of the 26 slated for removal according to the plan resoundingly rejected by his Likud party on Sunday.

The five settlements are Morag, Netzarim and Moag in the Gaza strip, and the northern West Bank settlements of Ganim and Kadim. The prime minister has not ruled out, however, a more extensive evacuation, but it is clear that the revision will drastically reduce the number of settlements to be removed.

The Yesha Council of Jewish settlements said that the new version of the initiative was still rewarding terrorism.

Even before three-fifth of the members of the Likud voted against the original plan, Sharon had offered leaders of the Yesha Council of Jewish settlements a deal, whereby seven settlements would be voluntarily removed. The proposal was rejected by the settlers.

Some 59.5 percent of Likud voters opposed the plan, which calls for a withdrawal from all Gaza settlements and from four settlements in the West Bank. Some 39.7 percent voted in favor of the plan. Just 51.6 percent of registered Likud members participated in the referendum.

Sharon said earlier Monday he would consult with coalition members and the Likud's Knesset faction to formulate an alternative to the plan in the wake of its defeat.

Sharon was due to meet Justice Minister Yosef Lapid and Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom as part of these consultations. The prime minister met Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz on Monday.

Following the meeting, Mofaz said that the outcome of Sunday's poll must be respected, adding that the security aspects of the disengagement plan would obviously be incorporated into any new initiative, "which will take into consideration the wishes of Likud members and the public."

The prime minister told the Likud Knesset faction on Monday that the summer session of the parliament would have to deal with difficult decisions that will shape everyone's future.

Essentially reiterating a statement he made Sunday after exit polls showed his disengagement plan had suffered a resounding defeat in the Likud Party internal referendum, Sharon said he was disappointed with the result, but accepts it. Sharon has rejected suggestions that he might resign.

U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher on Monday termed Sharon's defeat a "setback" for the prime minister. Boucher said the plan, publicly welcomed by President George W. Bush during Sharon's visit to Washington last month, could still be a way to move peace talks forward, but added.

"What we do have now is a political situation that will be dealt with by the political leaders in Israel," Boucher said. "We note, however, that the population of Israel by and large appears to be supportive of the Gaza withdrawal plan."

"I don't think we've hitched our wagon to any single effort," he said. "Certainly we recognize that many other - a lot of the other things were not moving forward and we saw this as an opportunity, but it's not necessarily the only opportunity."

About 200 students demonstrated at Tel Aviv University on Monday against the Likud and the defeat of the disengagement plan.