ISRAEL/GAZA: ISRAELI PM ARIEL SHARON DEPARTS FOR NEW YORK TO ADDRESS THE U.N. GENERAL ASSEMBLY AS PALESTINIAN PM AHMED QURIE URGES PALESTINIANS TO REBUILD GAZA

Record ID: 400513

  • Title: ISRAEL/GAZA: ISRAELI PM ARIEL SHARON DEPARTS FOR NEW YORK TO ADDRESS THE U.N. GENERAL ASSEMBLY AS PALESTINIAN PM AHMED QURIE URGES PALESTINIANS TO REBUILD GAZA
  • Date: 13th September 2005
  • Summary: (W3) BEN GURION AIRPORT, LOD, ISRAEL (SEPTEMBER 13, 2005) (POOL) 1. CONVOY OF ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER ARIEL SHARON ARRIVING AT RUNWAY 2. SHARON, ACCOMPANIED BY BODYGUARDS, STEPPING OUT OF HIS CAR 3. SHARON BOARDING PLANE HEADED TO NEW YORK 4. ISRAELI AIRLINE COMPANY'S LOGO 0.48 (BN08) FORMER GUSH KATIF SETTLEMENT BLOC, GA
  • Embargoed: 28th September 2005 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BEN GURION AIRPORT, LOD, ISRAEL / FORMER GUSH KATIF SETTLEMENT BLOC, GAZA
  • City:
  • Country: Gaza Israel
  • Reuters ID: LVA1MJYD7LWOLFWCQ8FS7Z4S305R
  • Story Text: Sharon departs for United Nations conference as Qurie encourages
    Palestinians to rebuild Gaza.


    Overshadowed by the completion of a smooth pullout from the Gaza
    Strip, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon departed on Tuesday (September 13, 2005)
    for New York to address the United Nations General Assembly.

    Sharon and Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom were due to hold a
    series of meetings with world leaders who were expected to embrace Israel's
    leader for a successful withdrawal from the occupied coastal strip.

    Palestinian forces waving victory signs took over after Israel
    completed its withdrawal from the Gaza Strip on Monday (September 12), for the
    first time yielding settlements on land Palestinians want for a state and
    leaving them a volatile testing ground for statehood.

    Sharon is due to address leaders on Thursday (September 15) at a
    festive opening ceremony marking 60 years of its establishment.

    Palestinian leaders, while welcoming any pullout from occupied land,
    remain sceptical of Sharon, particularly due to his insistence that Israel
    will keep large settlement blocs in the occupied West Bank under any future
    peace deal.

    "From here we have removed the occupation and we will continue to
    remove them from the remaining positions. From the crossing, the sea and the
    sky and then we will continue our march in the West Bank and Jerusalem to
    establish our independent state," Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie
    told reporters after touring the former Israeli settlement of Gush Katif in
    Gaza.

    Qurie also met with senior members of the Mawasi, a Palestinian
    community which lived inside the Gush Katif settlement bloc under Israeli
    occupation.

    He urged Palestinians to stop looting and start rebuilding in abandoned
    Jewish settlements following Israel's military withdrawal.

    But his appeal reflected a concern to show the world that Palestinians
    can establish order in Gaza.

    Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's first task will be to enforce
    order and rein in militant groups which refuse to disarm.

    But a news conference hosted by Islamic Jihad members in a synagogue in
    the former settlement of Netzarim indicated Abbas may have his work cut out
    for him.

    "We have reaffirmed that the weapons of resistance are clean
    weapons. They know their job and that is to confront the Zionist enemy and to
    face the criminal acts against our people who are fighters. Therefore we
    invite all the resistance factions to preserve the sanctity of weapons because
    the fight has just begun," the leader of Islamic Jihad's military wing
    said.

    "It was known to all that the truce was for a limited time, which
    means it ends at the end of the year. Talk about renewing the truce, or doing
    another truce after the end of this period will be completely different,"
    added Islamic Jihad leader Nafez Azzam.

    Israel has threatened massive retaliation if attacks from Gaza
    continue.


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