WEST BANK: PALESTINIAN PM CALLS ON WORLD TO PRESSURE ISRAEL TO HALT CONSTRUCTION OF SECURITY FENCE.

Record ID: 400405

  • Title: WEST BANK: PALESTINIAN PM CALLS ON WORLD TO PRESSURE ISRAEL TO HALT CONSTRUCTION OF SECURITY FENCE.
  • Date: 11th January 2004
  • Summary: (U4) QALQILYA, WEST BANK (JANUARY 11, 2004) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. LV: PALESTINIAN PRIME MINISTER AHMED QURIE'S DELEGATION STANDING AT BARRIER 0.06 2. MV: PALESTINIAN PRIME MINISTER AHMED QURIE SPEAKING TO LOCAL RESIDENTS ABOUT BARRIER 0.26 3. GV: ISRAELI ARMY WATCH TOWER AT BARRIER 0.31 4. (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) PALESTINIAN PRIME
  • Embargoed: 26th January 2004 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: QALQILYA, WEST BANK
  • City:
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Reuters ID: LVABKBIFMZXIJM5VKYJ3FPLJGO7Z
  • Story Text: Palestinian PM calls on world to pressure Israel to
    halt construction of separation barrier.



    Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie, with his
    back to a wall Israel has built around a West Bank city,
    said on Sunday (January 11) peace would never dawn in the
    Middle East unless the barrier was removed.

    Israel says the barrier, a mix of fences and concrete
    walls, is meant to keep out Palestinian suicide bombers.

    Palestinians call it a bid to annex occupied land as it
    often snakes away from the border into the West Bank to
    absorb Jewish settlements.

    Palestinians fear the barrier, vanguard of unilateral
    steps Israel is preparing with a peace plan stalled, will
    dash their dream of a viable state and Qurie visited the
    towering wall sealing off Qalqilya to dramatise his case
    against it.

    "From the edge of this wall, from the edge of this
    racist separation wall, I appeal to the United States, to
    President George W. Bush, Europe, to Russia, and the
    United Nations to (understand): does this (wall) leave any
    chance for the establishment of a Palestinian state?" he
    said in the shadow of the 10-metre (33-foot) barrier.

    "I am not saying this emotionally, like many say. I am
    trying to attract attention to what they (Israel) are
    trying to do through this wall. They are drawing a picture
    of an imposed solution on the ground" said Qurie, who was
    paying his first visit to a West Bank city outside Ramallah
    since taking office in November.

    The barrier's serpentine course has separated
    Palestinian farmers from their fields and crippled trade
    between villages and market towns like Qalqilya, where
    40,000 people are ringed by walls except for one gap with
    an Israeli army checkpoint.

    "The Palestinian people, with its struggle, with its
    history, with is heritage, with its rights will not accept,
    under any conditions, under any situation, under any power,
    will not accept this" Qurie added.

    Qurie did not elaborate. But last week he said
    Palestinians might opt for a "bi-national" state grouping
    Israel and occupied territory in which Arabs would have a
    voting majority.

    Another option, according to the Palestine Liberation
    Organisation's executive committee led by President Yasser
    Arafat, might be to proclaim a state unilaterally in the
    West Bank and Gaza to counter Israel's go-it-alone moves.

    Aides to right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
    denounced both Palestinian threats, saying they would
    shatter the "two-state solution" prescribed by the
    U.S.-backed "road map" peace plan. Palestinians say the
    same of the barrier.

    Both sides formally accepted the road map but it has
    been torn by continued violence and a mutual failure to
    carry out confidence-building steps including a ceasefire
    by Palestinian militants and an Israeli army pullback from
    West Bank cities.

    The Bush administration sees Palestinian "terrorism" as
    the biggest obstacle to the plan but is also concerned the
    barrier could splinter any future Palestinian state so much
    as to render it untenable, prolonging conflict.

    More than 20 Israeli army roadblocks slowed the
    journey of Qurie and his entourage on their 50-km (30-mile)
    trip from Ramallah to Qalqilya on the boundary with Israel.



  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register