"Nixon in China."
Sharon Says He Plans to Pull Out 17 Settlements From Gaza
By TERENCE NEILAN - NYT
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel said today that he had given an order to plan for the removal of all 17 Jewish settlements from the Gaza Strip, causing consternation among settlers and politicians.
"I am working on the assumption that in the future there will be no Jews in Gaza," Mr. Sharon said in an interview with the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, parts of which were published on its Web site today.
Despite his assertions, the motives for the plan were called into question, by the Palestinians and even by an Israeli politician.
Political analysts also noted that Mr. Sharon, a strong supporter of settlements throughout his political career, has announced their planned removal in recent months, but with little practical result on the ground.
The prime minister confirmed his Gaza plan at a meeting of his own Likud Party, but gave no timetable for the move, Israel Radio reported.
"It is my intention to carry out an evacuation — sorry, a relocation — of settlements that cause us problems and of places that we will not hold onto anyway in a final settlement, like the Gaza settlements," the prime minister told a Haaretz columnist, Yoel Marcus.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian news agency WAFA quoted medical officials as saying that four Palestinians were killed today when Israeli forces raided the town of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.
Mr. Sharon said he would present his plan to President Bush during a visit to Washington later this month, the prime minister told Haaretz, saying it needed American support and financing. He said he had not yet discussed it with the Bush administration.
Mr. Sharon has said recently that he would take unilateral action if no progress was made on a peace plan with the Palestinians, but up to now he has referred only to the possible relocation of isolated settlements.
The present plan would affect 7,500 people, Mr. Sharon said, and involve moving factories and packing plants, thousands of educational institutions and "thousands and thousands of vehicles."
The first thing would be to seek the settlers' agreement, many of them third-generation, he said.
But to judge from initial reactions that will not be easy. Doubts were also expressed about whether Mr. Sharon would actually go ahead with such a plan, and that if he did whether it would be passed by Parliament
"I am in shock," a Likud legislator, Yehiel Hazan, told Israeli radio in broadcast remarks.
"I think that the prime minister thinks he is the leader not of the Likud but of Labor, Meretz and Shinu," Mr. Hazan said, referring to parties with a political agenda to the left of Likud.
Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, who was asked about the plan before the Likud faction meeting today, said he had not heard about it, but that he was opposed to unilateral concessions, Haaretz reported.
"My position has been made known publicly in the past, and it hasn't changed: that unilateral steps will not lead to a lessening of the confrontation and friction, and might make it worse," Mr. Shalom said.
The head of the Council of Settlements, Bentzi Lieberman, told Haaretz that Mr. Sharon must listen to his military advisers who are opposed to a unilateral pullout. He also said he did not think the government would pass such a plan.
A spokeswoman for residents in the southern Gush Khatif settlement bloc told Agence-France Presse, that "transferring people from their homes is not the solution to peace in the Middle East."
Zvi Hendel, an Israeli lawmaker and Gaza settler, accused Mr. Sharon of trying to deflect attention from various corruption investigations against the prime minister and his two sons.
"I said several weeks ago that the intensity of the investigations would equal the intensity of the uprooting of settlements," Mr. Hendel told Israel Radio.
A leading Palestinian cabinet member, Saeb Erekat, told Reuters, "Usually when the Israeli government speaks about evacuation of settlements, it aims only at public relations.
"If Israel wants to leave Gaza, no Palestinian will stand in its way."
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company |
