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Israel, Palestinians Deadlocked 5 Years After Pact
01:23 p.m Sep 13, 1998 Eastern
By Howard Goller
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israelis and Palestinians fought on the street and bickered at the peace table Sunday, the fifth anniversary of the Oslo accords they sealed with a historic handshake on the White House lawn.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu answered a threat of suicide bombings from the Islamic militant group Hamas with a threat of his own, vowing to meet ''massive terrorist attacks'' with an iron fist.
''Israel will not tolerate a strike against its citizens and will act with an iron fist against the murderous organizations,'' a government statement quoted Netanyahu as telling a cabinet meeting.
Clashes erupted for the third day since Israel killed two top Hamas militants, brothers Imad and Adel Awadallah who were suspected of plotting attacks against Israel. Hamas, opposed to peace with Israel, has vowed to avenge the killings.
In the West Bank, Israeli troops fired rubber-coated bullets to disperse Palestinian stone-throwers near the Jewish settlement of Tekoa, injuring five youngsters, Palestinians said.
Near Bethlehem, Jesus's traditional birthplace, Palestinians raised a coffin covered in black. Written on it in Arabic and Hebrew were the words ''Oslo is dead,'' a reference to the Norwegian capital where the 1993 interim peace deal was forged.
About 150 Palestinians took part in the protest, burning Israeli and U.S. flags.
In Egypt, U.S. Middle East troubleshooter Dennis Ross lamented the stalemate five years after Palestinian President Yasser Arafat shook hands with then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin at a sunny ceremony in Washington.
''I am standing here before you on the fifth anniversary of the signing,'' Ross told reporters after meeting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on his renewed efforts to break the deadlock.
''Clearly we are not where we had hoped to be,'' Ross said.
''There still are many issues that have to be worked on,'' he added ahead of his return to Israel Sunday for a meeting between Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat and Israeli cabinet secretary Danny Naveh.
Netanyahu's communications chief David Bar-Illan said the sides would discuss outstanding issues from previous peace deals such as a Gaza airport and safe passage for Palestinians between the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The United States has proposed that Israel hand over another 13 percent of the West Bank to the Palestinians in exchange for measures to curb Islamic militants. Arafat accepts it; Netanyahu is resisting, making security demands.
Netanyahu, elected six months after the assassination of Rabin by a right-wing Jew opposed to Arab-Israeli peace moves in November 1995, plunged talks into crisis nearly 19 months ago when he broke ground on a Jewish settlement.
Since then talks have remained stuck over the terms of a further Israeli transfer of West Bank land and charges of Palestinian Authority laxity in dealing with Islamic militants whose suicide bombers have killed dozens of Israelis.
An indefinite Israeli closure of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, imposed after the killings of the Awadallah brothers, remained in effect.
Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited. |
