VARIOUS: ISRAELI CABINET APPROVES PRIME MINISTER ARIEL SHARON'S PLAN TO DISENGAGE FROM GAZA AND NORTHERN WEST BANK

Record ID: 400346

  • Title: VARIOUS: ISRAELI CABINET APPROVES PRIME MINISTER ARIEL SHARON'S PLAN TO DISENGAGE FROM GAZA AND NORTHERN WEST BANK
  • Date: 22nd February 2005
  • Summary: (EU) JERUSALEM (FEBRUARY 20, 2005) (REUTERS) 1. WIDE OF PRIME MINISTER'S OFFICE; SCU SIGN OF PRIME MINISTER'S OFFICE 0.08 2. (SOUNDBITE) (English) MINISTER OF HOUSING AND CONSTRUCTION ISAAC HERZOG TALKING TO REPORTERS AFTER THE ISRAELI CABINET APPROVED ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER ARIEL SHARON'S PULLOUT PLAN: "The Israeli government held today a very lon
  • Embargoed: 9th March 2005 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: JERUSALEM/ GUSH KATIF, GAZA STRIP/ RAMALLAH, WEST BANK
  • City:
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Reuters ID: LVAERE09JM8USE8ESVREX29NQJ3B
  • Story Text: Israeli cabinet approves Sharon's plan to disengage
    from Gaza and northern West Bank.

    Israel's cabinet approved on Sunday (February 20, 2005)
    the evacuation of Jewish settlements under Prime Minister
    Ariel Sharon's Gaza pullout plan, Sharon's office said.

    The 17-5 vote marked the first time an Israeli
    government has given the green light for the removal of
    settlements from
    occupied land the Palestinians want for a state of their
    own.

    During today's cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, history
    was being made. "The Israeli government held today a very
    long meeting which definitely had historical repercussions,
    and I can say as a minister in the government that in the
    room there was a feeling that history is being made. For
    the first time after generations the government of Israel
    has decided to pull out from certain territories in order
    to enable for peace and in order to enable for the
    Palestinians to start assuming power themselves over these
    territories and see whether they can govern their own
    lives," Israeli minister Herzog said.

    The decision effectively gave the 8,000 settlers slated
    for evacuation the five months' notice Israel's attorney
    general said was required under law before they could be
    ordered to leave.

    All 21 settlements in the Gaza Strip and four of 120 in
    the West Bank are to be removed in four stages, starting
    around July.

    The cabinet is slated to hold separate votes to set
    each phase of the evacuation into motion, determining which
    settlements are to be uprooted and when.

    Last June, Sharon's cabinet ratified his plan to
    "disengage" from the Palestinians but hedged the decision
    by putting off any vote on dismantling settlements.

    At the time, Sharon faced strong opposition from
    pro-settler ministers. He has since reshaped his cabinet to
    include more proponents of a pullout from territory he says
    Israel never would have sought under a peace treaty with
    the Palestinians.

    On Wednesday, parliament approved a law granting the
    settlers compensation and relocation funds. Settlers and
    their supporters have pledged to step up a protest campaign
    against the pullout.

    A settler from Gush Katif expressed sorrow over this
    decision. "I am very sorry for the people of Israel that
    they made such a terrible decision, and that our government
    is not smart enough to know what will happen as a result of
    their decision. With all of our experience since Oslo and
    before, why can't we realize that the Arabs don't want
    peace. I am going to remain in my house, I am going to go
    to school, I am going to do my work and I'm going to hope
    that with God's help this decision will not be
    implemented," Rose Shned said.

    A Hamas spokesman considered this decision a victory
    for resistance. "We consider the withdrawal from the Gaza
    Strip as an achievement for the Palestinian people and a
    victory for the resistance which proved its effectiveness
    and its course, as well as the ability to force on new
    equations, to force the Zionist enemy to think in a serious
    manner to withdraw from Gaza because of the resistance. We
    say that this withdrawal from Gaza should not bring about
    any political or security gains or even financially since
    the Zionist enemy is living in a real crisis and we should
    not help in getting them out of this situation," Mosheer
    Al-Masri, spokesman for Hamas said.

    In Ramallah during a meeting for the PLO Executive
    Committee, Palestinian leaders expressed regret that the
    disengagement will not be co-ordinated with the new
    Palestinian leadership. "This has not become part of the
    Road Map, therefore we are not party to this resolution.

    It's a unilateral Israeli resolution. What we care about is
    to see what happens on the ground and how this will become
    part of the Road Map," said Palestinian Minister of Foreign
    Affairs Nabil Sha'ath.

    Israel captured both territories the Gaza strip and
    the West Bank including Arab east Jerusalem in the 1967
    Middle East war. There are 21 settlements in the Gaza
    Strip, housing 8,500 Israelis alongside 1.3 million
    Palestinians.


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