Israel weighs unilateral pullout from 90 percent of West Bank
worldtribune.com
Friday, October 14, 2005
JERUSALEM — The government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is examining plans for a multi-stage unilateral withdrawal from as much as 90 percent of the West Bank.
Officials said the Israeli withdrawal plans have been discussed with the United States. On Oct. 20, President George Bush was scheduled to meet Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, and last week Bush assured a Palestinian delegation that Israel would withdraw from additional areas of the West Bank.
Officials said the Defense Ministry and military have been reviewing a range of options for unilateral withdrawal in the West Bank by 2007, Middle East Newsline reported. They said the National Security Council has drafted options for the removal of between 10,000 and 100,000 Jews from the area.
"Only unilateral [withdrawal] can work in this era," [Res.] Brig. Gen. Eyval Giladi, a senior adviser to Sharon, said. "Israel determines where, when and how it withdraws."
Officials said any unilateral withdrawal plan would be facilitated by the construction of the security wall and fence in the West Bank.
"Within months or even weeks, the communities not included in the wall will be isolated and life will become increasingly harder for them," an official said. "In some ways, it will be similar to what took place in [the Jewish settlement bloc of] Gush Katif in the Gaza Strip."
Another option drafted by the council was for an Israeli pullout from 90 percent of the West Bank and the removal of more than 100 Jewish communities. Officials said this option has been discussed by Sharon and supported by several senior ministers, including Vice Premier Ehud Olmert.
Officials said that by 2007 many of the Jewish communities in the West Bank located outside the wall would either disintegrate or be dismantled by the military. They said the military would also remove Jewish communities in the northern and central West Bank as part of a plan to provide the Palestinians with territorial contiguity from Jenin to Ramallah.
By November, officials said, the Defense Ministry plans to begin construction of the wall at 15 points along the Etzion Bloc, which Sharon has vowed to maintain in any peace settlement with the Palestinians. The Defense Ministry has drafted maps for a wall that would encompass a narrow Jewish enclave and exclude Israeli communities in the eastern and southern portion of the region.
National Security Council chief Giora Eiland has presented a plan for the removal of 17 Jewish communities in the northern and central West Bank as part of the first stage of the unilateral withdrawal, officials said.
They said the communities consisted of 8,000 people.
In a speech prepared for delivery at the Likud Party Central Committee in late September, Sharon proposed the evacuation of Jewish communities outside three settlement areas: the Etzion Bloc, the Ariel Bloc and the Jordan Valley. These blocs would be ringed by security zones patrolled by the Israeli military. |
