WEST BANK/GAZA: PRIME MINISTER EHU BARAK SAYS THAT ISRAEL REJECTS THE ARAB SUMMIT'S "LANGUAGE OF THREATS"

Record ID: 400099

  • Title: WEST BANK/GAZA: PRIME MINISTER EHU BARAK SAYS THAT ISRAEL REJECTS THE ARAB SUMMIT'S "LANGUAGE OF THREATS"
  • Date: 22nd October 2000
  • Summary: JERUSALEM (OCTOBER 22, 2000) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. SV ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER EHUD BARAK ARRIVING FOR THE CABINET MEETING 0.05 2. SLV OF CABINET MEMBERS SEATED AT ROUND TABLE 0.10 3. PAN ACROSS CABINET MEMBERS SEATED 0.23 4. SLV EXTERIOR PRIME MINISTERS OFFICE 0.26 5. SV/MCU ISRAEL PRIME MINISTER EHUD ARRIIVING FOR NEWS C
  • Embargoed: 6th November 2000 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: JERUSALEM / HEBRON, RAMALLAH, BEIT ANOUN AND HALHOUL, WEST BANK/ GAZA
  • City:
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Reuters ID: LVA96T4BGYSE2RBWBVDHLR1X9O2Q
  • Story Text: Prime Minister Ehud Barak has said that Israel
    rejected the Arab summit's "language of threats" In response
    Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, said anyone blocking the
    Palestinians' path to a state with Jerusalem as its capital
    can "go to hell".

    The violence that has engulfed the West Bank and Gaza for
    over three weeks and derailed Middle East peacemaking
    continued.



    Prime Minister Ehud Barak said on Sunday (October 22)
    his government would take a time-out from peacemaking with the
    Palestinians after an emergency Arab summit used what he
    called threatening language against Israel.

    Palestinian President Yasser Arafat responded by saying
    that Barak's decision was no surprise and anyone blocking his
    people's path to an independent state with Jerusalem as its
    capital "can go to hell".

    "Israel totally rejects the language of threats that came
    out of the summit and condemns the call, folded into the
    decisions, for continued violence," Barak told reporters.

    Four Palestinians, including a 14-year-old, were killed in
    clashes with Israeli forces in the West Bank and Gaza Strip on
    Sunday, bringing the number of dead in three weeks of
    bloodshed to 125, all but eight of them Arabs.

    Arab leaders wrapped up a rare summit in Cairo by calling
    for a war crimes tribunal to investigate Israel's handling of
    the unrest.

    Accusing Israel of massacring Palestinians, the summit
    said: "Arab states will prosecute according to international
    law those who caused these barbaric practices and demand that
    the Security Council form a special international criminal
    court to try Israeli war criminals."
    But the two-day summit stopped short of calling on Egypt
    and Jordan, which both have peace treaties with Israel, from
    cutting ties with the Jewish state.

    Addressing his cabinet, Barak did not say when the Israeli
    time-out from an already shattered peace process would begin.

    Asked to respond to Barak's call for a time-out, Arafat
    told reporters on his return from the summit to Gaza: "I
    expected this from him. It's not the first time he's said
    something like this."
    Arafat said the Palestinian people were "continuing the
    road to Jerusalem", which they claim as the capital of a
    future state. "To accept it, or not to accept it -- let him go
    to hell," he said, without mentioning Barak by name.

    Israeli political analysts say that by halting the already
    deadlocked peace talks, the politically weakened Barak would
    boost the chances of wooing right-wing opposition leader Ariel
    Sharon to a government of national unity.

    As Barak was meeting his cabinet members, right-wing
    demonstrators in Jerusalem gathered outside Barak's official
    residence to protest against what they call "unreasonable
    concessions" in the peace process.

    "Go home before we have no home," the protesters shouted,
    urging Barak to resign.

    At least 125 people, most of them Palestinians, have been
    killed in a wave of violence that has lasted for more than
    three weeks and devastated Middle East peacemaking.

    On Sunday (October 22) Israeli soldiers killed four
    Palestinians in clashes in the West Bank and Gaza including a
    14-year-old boy.

    The latest deaths came shortly after Arab leaders in Cairo
    demanded a United Nations war crimes commission be set up to
    investigate Israel's handling of the violence. Israeli
    officials say soldiers are acting with restraint in the face
    of bullets fired by Palestinian gunmen and firebombs hurled by
    protesters.

    The violence continued all day Sunday with clashes
    erupting in the West Bank villages of Beit Anoun and Halhoul
    near Hebron, Ramallah and Gaza.




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