- Title: USA: INTERVIEW WITH ISRAELI KNESSET PRESIDENT AVRAHAM BURG
- Date: 19th June 2001
- Summary: WASHINGTON D.C., UNITED STATES (JUNE 18, 2001) (REUTERS) 1. SCU EST SHOTISRAELI KNESSET PRESIDENT AVRAHAM BURG SPEAKING WITH REUTERS REPORTER 0.06 2. SOUNDBITE (English) ISRAELI KNESSET PRESIDENT AVRAHAM BURG "Those who try and bring the Middle East twenty years into the past instead of looking 20 years to the future are those who will bring more f
- Embargoed: 4th July 2001 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: WASHINGTON DC, UNITED STATES
- City:
- Country: USA
- Reuters ID: LVA1Z1392U36RYMY4WYJT4H4TXKU
- Story Text: A long time political foe of Ariel Sharon, Knesset
President Avraham Burg, disregarded questions raised by the
BBC and Palestinians that the Israeli Prime Minister should be
tried for war crimes, saying those who focus on the past "will
bring more funerals to the region".
He also said the Palestinians have not reciprocated to a
unilateral Israeli ceasefire.
Berg was on an official visit to meet with U.S.
President George W. Bush's foreign policy team when he spoke
with Reuters. Commenting on questions raised the BBC
Panorama programme regarding Israeli Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon's role in a massacre of Palestinians in the Sabra and
Shatila camps in 1982, Burg said the program served to
destroy the fragile ceasefire.
"Those who try and bring the Middle East 20 years into the
past instead of looking 20 years to the future are those who
will bring more funerals to the region. It is about time to
put the past behind us and use the best intentions of Ariel
Sharon and the Israeli government that we want peace and make
peace in order to prevent future Sabra and Shatila and
massacres whoever it is coming from," he said.
During Lebanese Civil War and the Israeli Invasion of
that country, Israeli forces surrounding the Sabra and Shatila
camps allowed the Christian Lebanese militiamen to enter
ostensibly to catch Palestinian fighters. The Lebanese militia
killed hundreds of Palestinians.
Burg also commended Sharon, saying he was surprised by
the Israeli leaders restraint. He said that while Israel has
taken steps called for in the Tenet agreement and the Mitchell
Report, the Palestinians have not fulfilled their commitments.
He said, "The last couple days the Israeli unilateral policy
of no military initiative is a very very serious indication of
what we mean unfortunately it was not yet met by any
Palestinian measure to balance it, but I am waiting for that."
Burg said that the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat makes
commitments to the world and then continues to incite
violence. He said, "the art of talking from both sides of your
mouth is an art which was very perfected in the Middle East
recently. And the talks that the Palestinians are talking with
their people are not necessarily the same talks that they are
doing with the world. What we examine as the real intentions
are what the rank and file of the Palestinian understood and
as long as the shooting continues they understand another
message than the one given to us from the other side of the
mouth."
Burg met with National Security Advisor Dr. Condoleeza
Rice on Monday evening. He has meetings scheduled on Wednesday
with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and members of the
the U.S. Congress.
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