ISRAEL/GAZA: EXECUTIVES OF PRIME MINISTER ARIEL SHARON'S LIKUD PARTY VOTE IN FAVOUR OF A GAZA DISENGAGEMENT REFERENDUM

Record ID: 400488

  • Title: ISRAEL/GAZA: EXECUTIVES OF PRIME MINISTER ARIEL SHARON'S LIKUD PARTY VOTE IN FAVOUR OF A GAZA DISENGAGEMENT REFERENDUM
  • Date: 3rd March 2005
  • Summary: (W4) TEL AVIV, ISRAEL (MARCH 03, 2005) (REUTERS) 1. MV: ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER ARIEL SHARON WALKING TOWARDS PODIUM AT THE LIKUD CENTRAL COMMITTEE; SHARON SHAKING HANDS WITH PARTH OFFICIALS ON PODIUM 0.22 2. (SOUNDBITE) (Hebrew) ISRAELI FINANCE MINISTER BENJAMIN NETHANYAHU SAYING: "Every territorial decision needs to be brought to referendum, what w
  • Embargoed: 18th March 2005 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: TEL AVIV, ISRAEL / GUSH KATIF, GAZA
  • Country: Israel
  • Reuters ID: LVAAOUTWEILPBIIY285QFR75GKFL
  • Story Text: Sharon's right wing Likud party vote in favour of
    Gaza disengagement referendum.


    The rebellious executive of Israeli Prime Minister
    Ariel Sharon's Likud party voted on Thursday (March 3) to
    urge Likud deputies in parliament to seek a referendum on
    his plan to withdraw from Gaza.

    The Central Committee ballot pushed through by rightist
    hardliners opposed to the plan was non-binding. Sharon's
    aides said it would have little impact since there is no
    majority in the Knesset (parliament) for referendum
    legislation.

    But the vote displayed the strength of rebels in Likud
    who aim to join forces with opposition rightists in the
    Knesset to reject the state budget in a vote later this
    month. Failure of the budget would force snap elections and
    shelve the Gaza plan.

    "Every territorial decision needs to be brought to
    referendum, what was right for 1998 is even more right in
    2005. We need to have a referendum," Israeli Finance Minister
    Benjamin Nethanyahu told a cheering crowd ahead of
    the vote.

    Sharon aims to evacuate all 8,500 Jewish settlers from
    Gaza and a few hundred of more than 230,000 from the West
    Bank later this year to "disengage" from conflict with the
    Palestinians.

    "I will not let the extreme fringes to dictate the way
    forward. I will not let them taint an entire public with
    violence, with refusal, with incitement. We will react with
    severity and firmness," Sharon told the Likud members who
    responded with catcalls.

    Central Committee members approved the motion for a
    referendum by a show of hands so overwhelming that the
    forum's secretary said there was no need to see who would
    vote "no".

    "We shall now step up our efforts in order to pass this
    law on the referendum for the disengagement plan," Uzi
    Landau, who heads the rebels within the Likud party, told
    Reuters Television after the vote passed.

    Following the vote in Tel-Aviv, settlers in Gush Katif
    in the Gaza Strip sang and danced to express satisfaction
    by the results at the Likud committee.

    The Disengagement plan, which would mark Israel's first
    pullout from lands it occupied in the 1967 Middle East war
    and which Palestinians want for a state, has been touted by
    U.S.-led mediators as a springboard toward final peace
    negotiations.

    Enjoying solid support in opinion polls for
    "disengagement", Sharon has rejected referendum proposals
    made by die-hard settlers and nationalist patrons as a
    stalling tactic.

    Likud's policy-making Central Committee is a hotbed of
    opposition to ceding any of Gaza and the West Bank.

    Hardliners call any such step "capitulation to terrorism".

    A Islamic Jihad suicide bomber killed five Israelis
    outside a Tel Aviv nightclub on Friday, undermining a de
    facto ceasefire agreed at a Feb. 8 summit between Sharon
    and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

    But most militant leaders say they remain committed to
    maintaining calm under an informal agreement with Abbas,
    elected in January on a platform of starting talks with
    Israel on a state in Gaza and the West Bank.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register