ISRAEL/JERUSALEM: ADVISOR TO ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER ARIEL SHARON SAYS EXPELLING PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT YASSER ARAFAT IS NOT AN OPTION

Record ID: 400155

  • Title: ISRAEL/JERUSALEM: ADVISOR TO ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER ARIEL SHARON SAYS EXPELLING PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT YASSER ARAFAT IS NOT AN OPTION
  • Date: 17th October 2003
  • Summary: (EU) JERUSALEM (OCTOBER 17, 2003)(REUTERS) 1. VARIOUS OF JERUSALEM POST ARTICLE READING ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER ARIEL SHARON RULES OUT EXPELLING PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT YASSER ARAFAT (5 SHOTS) 0.38 (EU) TEL AVIV, ISRAEL (OCTOBER 17, 2003) (REUTERS) 2. ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER'S ADVISOR RA'ANAN GISSIN TALKING TO REPORTERS 0.44 3. SOUND
  • Embargoed: 1st November 2003 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: TEL AVIV, ISRAEL/ JERUSALEM
  • City:
  • Country: Israel
  • Reuters ID: LVA4JILMRCI8TRYY3DDSRSID5SRT
  • Story Text: Expelling Palestinian President Yasser Arafat 'is
    not an option' adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel
    Sharon says.


    Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon appeared on
    Friday (October 17) to rule out expelling Palestinian
    President Yasser Arafat and played down an Israeli threat
    against the Palestinian leader that had drawn international
    outcry and U.S. misgivings.

    "Our calculations for years have been that expelling
    him would not be good for Israel," Sharon told the
    conservative Jerusalem Post newspaper when asked about last
    month's decision in principle by his security cabinet to
    "remove" Arafat.

    Some hawkish members of Sharon's cabinet had even
    proposed killing Arafat, an idea the prime minister
    dismissed at the time and which Foreign Minister Silvan
    Shalom then ruled out. Israel has not said how or when it
    might take action against Arafat.

    In an interview, Sharon's adviser Ra'anan Gissin said
    that "in no way implied that the only solution is
    expulsion."
    Speaking in Tel Aviv on Friday, Gissin said: "What the
    prime minister meant in the interview with the Jerusalem
    Post (was) that currently because of the circumstances,
    because of the fact that he (Arafat) may be hurt in a
    forced expulsion, expulsion is not an option. We have to
    look at other options, isolate him, or maybe the
    Palestinian people themselves will decide how to bring
    about a situation in which Arafat would no longer be an
    obstacle on the road map to peace, no longer undermine the
    prime minister which he appoints."
    With U.S. backing, Israel accuses Arafat -- largely
    confined to his West Bank headquarters for nearly two years
    -- of fomenting violence in a three-year-old Palestinian
    uprising for independence, charges he denies. But
    Washington opposes harming him or exiling Arafat from
    Palestinian areas.

    In the interview, Gissin also criticised an
    investigation by Palestinians into the roadside bombing
    deaths of three U.S. security guards in Gaza on Wednesday
    (October 15). Palestinian police say they have arrested
    three suspected militants and are hunting for two more in
    connection with the bombing.

    "Now these people are demanded, or required, to
    actually investigate themselves, so what we are going to
    have is a virtual investigation without any real results,"
    said Gissin.

    "Oh, they will find some scapegoats for that event, but
    not really getting down to the bottom of it, and the bottom
    of it is eradicating terrorism or stopping the terrorist
    activity by the terrorist organisations."


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