Palestine Media Center – PMC, 21/02/2005

The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) has slammed the Israeli cabinet’s decision on Sunday to resume the construction of the expansionist Wall as having “very dangerous strategic consequences”, while it called for USA and international intervention and said it will approach the UN Security Council “to stop this capital crime.”

Concurrently, the Israeli co-author of the Geneva Initiative Yossi Beilin said there can be no justification whatsoever for building a wall on the “neighbor’s land without the neighbor’s consent”.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s Cabinet began on Sunday charting Israel’s future borders in two separate sessions described by Israeli media as “historic”, by giving final approval to a withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and a revised route for the Wall the Jewish state is building on occupied Palestinian land.

Sharon’s “unity” cabinet voted 17-5 to ratify his “Disengagement Plan,” and 20-1 with one abstention to resume building the Wall.

The new route of the Wall will annex 7 percent of the West Bank, including four Palestinian villages south of Jerusalem with a 10,000 population, and will incorporate the largest Jewish settlement blocs of Ma’aleh Adumim and Gush Etzion, with more than 100,000 illegal Jewish settlers, into Israel.

“The construction of the wall violates international law, most notably the International Court of Justice’s Advisory Opinion on 9 July 2004 which demanded Israel to tear it down and make reparation for all damage caused by the Wall,” said the PLO Executive Committee (EC) on Sunday.

The PLO said it will bring the Israeli decision to the attention of the UN Security Council to take note of this dangerous development in the Palestinian cause, affirming that the Israeli measures totally contradict with and undermine the UN-adopted roadmap peace plan, which the Security Council adopted in November 2003.

Following a meeting in Ramallah chaired by Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and attended by Prime Minister Ahmad Qurei and Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) Speaker Rawhi Fattouh, the EC said the Wall was designed to separate the West Bank from the Gaza Strip and isolate Jerusalem, making it impossible to establish a viable Palestinian state.

“This decision has very dangerous strategic consequences,” the committee said in a statement released by WAFA.

“Israel is exploiting the withdrawal from the Gaza Strip to cover up for its expansionist policies in the West Bank,” the statement added.

The PLO called on the United States and the international community to intervene with Israel to stop “this capital crime.”

Sharon’s policy of unilateralism “represents the essence of Israel’s policy, which aims to use the withdrawal from Gaza as a smokescreen to carry out its expansionist plans in the West Bank, and mainly the construction of the Apartheid Wall,” the PLO said.

The Wall, expected to run about 425 miles, is about one-third complete. It will confiscate 58 percent of the West Bank area when it is completed.

Abbas: Bush’s Letter to Sharon Unacceptable

The newly-elected President of the Palestine National Authority (PNA) reiterated in an interview with the German news magazine Der Spiegel on Monday that Israel must dismantle all settlements and halt construction of the Wall.

“What right does Israel have to build settlements on our land?” Abbas said.

Sharon said last week he had US blessing for holding on to large West Bank settlement blocs in a future peace deal. US President George W. Bush affirmed to Sharon in a letter on April 14 last year that “new realities” in the West Bank could not be overlooked in drawing the future borders of a Palestinian state.

Abbas told Der Spiegel that Bush cannot determine the Palestinians’ fate.

“The American letter to Sharon is unacceptable because it pre-empts solutions for a final phase we have not reached yet,” he said.

Erakat: Israel Dictates Outcome of Negotiations

Other Palestinian officials protested Israel’s go-it-alone approach.

“This Israeli government is dictating the outcome of the negotiations (on a final peace deal) before they begin,” said Palestinian Minister for Negotiations Saeb Erakat.

Referring to the recent Abbas–Sharon summit meeting in Egypt, Erakat called on Israel to start implementing the “Sharm el-Sheikh understandings” without delay, saying the Palestinians remain committed to a real and just peace based on all UN resolutions.

The Israeli decision he said “preempts and prejudges issues reserved for the final-status negotiations,” Erakat told Reuters.

Palestinian Labor Minister Ghassan Khatib said the Wall consolidate Israel’s control over the settlements.

Israel’s “voting for continuing the route in any part of the Palestinian-occupied territories, at a time that the parties are hoping to renew negotiations on the basis of the roadmap, is not good news for the peace process,” said Khatib.

“Erecting a wall around the settlements will only help consolidate” Israeli control over the settlements, he added.

PNA Cabinet Secretary Hasan Abu Libdeh said Israel continues to consider itself above the law, which will lead to the collapse of the peace process.

He said Israel’s decision to pursue the construction of the Wall shows that the time is not ripe for peace.

“We have repeatedly informed the international community that the wall is a settlement project for stealing Palestinian lands,” Abu Libdeh said. “If Israel wants to build a wall, it should do so on the Green Line.”

Palestinian legislator Hanan Ashrawi said Israel is creating more facts on the grounds.

“Israel is creating facts on the ground in the West Bank,” Ashrawi said, adding, “Sharon wants payback in the West Bank for the disengagement from Gaza, particularly Jerusalem.”

Beilin: Unjustified Decision

The Israeli cabinet’s decision to resume building the Wall according to the revised track was overwhelmingly adopted by 20-1 voted, with one abstention. The opposition Shinui party, the former ruling coalition partner to Sharon, also supported the government’s decision.

Left-wing Yahad Party Chairman and co-author of the unofficial Geneva Initiative Yossi Beilin was a lone voice in opposing the government’s Wall decision.

Hours ahead of the voting by the Israeli cabinet Sunday, the Israeli former justice minister called on Labor Party members in the Israeli government not to vote in favor of the modified route of the Wall, but in vain.

A number of peace activists in Israel including the Gush Shalom or Peace Bloc group joined Beilin in his call.

“We can build the wall only through an agreement with the Palestinians. We should not build it unilaterally,” Beilin told Israel’s state-run radio station.

He added that the government should either build the wall along the Green Line “where this is the only place such a wall can be built without an agreement or after a final status agreement is reached, whether it is based on the Geneva Accord, President Clinton's Parameters or President Bush’s initiative.”

Beilin said there can be no justification whatsoever for building a wall on the neighbor’s land without the neighbor’s consent.

“Such a thing cannot exist. Had Israel been doing this with the absence of a partner, things would look different. But when there is a partner and this construction damages this partner as it annexes thousands of Palestinians, building the wall becomes very problematic. I am surprised that the Labor Party under chairman of Shimon Peres gives a hand to such a project and justifies it. I cannot understand this at all,” he said.

“I do not think there is any justification, certainly not in the current situation, to enter to Palestinian territories and annex Palestinians and place them under our control, even if this is not a final arrangement,” Beilin added.

He warned against world criticism of Israel.

“We will continue to be target of criticism in the world and as such will make it more difficult to utilize the special opportunity that emerged when (Mahmoud Abbas) Abu Mazen, who is committed to stop terror and violence, was elected,” Beilin said.