JERUSALEM/WEST BANK/GAZA: ISRAELI COURT REJECTS BID TO OVERTURN GAZA WITHDRAWAL; SCUFFLES IN SALFIT VILLAGE.

Record ID: 400521

  • Title: JERUSALEM/WEST BANK/GAZA: ISRAELI COURT REJECTS BID TO OVERTURN GAZA WITHDRAWAL; SCUFFLES IN SALFIT VILLAGE.
  • Date: 10th June 2005
  • Summary: (BN09) GAZA CITY, GAZA (JUNE 09, 2005) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. GV/PAN: PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT MAHMOUD ABBAS ARRIVING AT HIS GAZA OFFICE TO HOLD TALKS WITH MILITANTS 0.24 2. GV: SECURITY OUTSIDE OFFICE 0.30 3. MV/PAN: ABBAS LEAVING OFFICE 0.42 (BN09) JERUSALEM (JUNE 09, 2005) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 4. MV: ISRAELI FOREIGN M
  • Embargoed: 25th June 2005 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: JERUSALEM/ GAZA CITY, GAZA/ SALFIT VILLAGE, WEST BANK
  • City:
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Reuters ID: LVADMT550HQ9JC13IU988J95P7LU
  • Story Text: Israeli court rejects bid to overturn Gaza
    withdrawal as Israel and Palestinians agree to coordinate
    their pullout steps.



    Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met leaders of
    militant groups and political factions in the occupied Gaza
    Strip on Thursday (June 9) to salvage a truce with Israel
    that has been hit by a flare-up of violence.

    Israeli warplanes broke the sound barrier over Gaza
    ahead of the talks, which came a day after an Israeli
    aircraft fired three missiles at a Palestinian rocket crew
    in Gaza in response to mortar fire at a Jewish settlement.

    Abbas was expected to urge militants to renew their
    commitment to the truce in talks with leaders of 14
    Palestinian factions, but also faces complaints by factions
    that his own ruling Fatah party is not serious about
    political reforms.

    In the latest flare-up, militants vowed revenge after
    Israeli forces killed an Islamic Jihad leader in the West
    Bank on Tuesday.

    Israel has held off on any large-scale military
    response apparently because of its reluctance to further
    inflame the situation, which could complicate its Gaza
    pullout plans.

    Israel and the Palestinians agreed on Wednesday (June 8)
    to co-ordinate security steps for a planned Gaza pullout in
    August, officials on both sides said.

    Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz and Palestinian
    Interior Minister Nasser Youssef reached a deal in Tel Aviv
    after weeks of disagreement over how to jointly bar
    militants from taking over Gaza and staging attacks after
    the withdrawal.

    In mid-August Israel plans to begin evacuating all of
    the 21 Jewish settlements it has built on occupied land in
    the Gaza Strip and four of 120 in the West Bank. The
    pullout is expected to take about a month.

    Mark Regev, an Israeli Foreign Ministry's spokesman,
    said that Israel was willing to co-ordinate Gaza
    disengagement with the Palestinian Authority.

    "It's in our interest, it's in their interest that the
    redeployment out of Gaza happens smoothly, quietly without
    violence. We are hoping the Palestinians would pick up the
    ball and facilitate a total cessation of terrorism ad so
    that disengagement could go ahead smoothly," Regev said on
    Thursday.

    The Palistinians confirmed the talks were going ahead.

    "The meeting yesterday.. was held in some positive
    atmosphere to a certain extent, and helped in reaching some
    form of agreement in regard to security coordination. Since
    there will be created committees and teams responsible for
    security co-ordination, they could work together to achieve
    the Israeli planned withdrawal," a spokesman for Youssef,
    Tawfiq Abu-Khoussa told Reuters Television.

    An Israeli Defence Ministry official said there would
    be "co-ordination in the field" to enable Palestinians to
    deploy security forces "to make sure that militants don't
    overtake" areas being vacated by Israel.

    Israel would also inform the Palestinians in advance of
    which settlements are being evacuated and when, so that
    "the Palestinians would take care that terrorist groups
    don't interfere," the official said.

    Israel's highest court on Thursday rejected a bid by
    Jewish settlers to overturn legislation underpinning
    Israel's planned withdrawal from Gaza, clearing the last
    major legal hurdle to a pullout in August.

    An 11-judge High Court panel left largely intact, with
    only minor technical changes, a parliamentary-approved
    package compensation package for 9,000 settlers slated for
    evacuation, court documents showed.

    Settlers had filed 12 petitions calling for the
    "disengagement" law, which entails payments ranging from
    100,000 and 400,000 U.S. dollars per family, to be
    invalidated or significantly rewritten.

    It was the latest in a series of attempts by settlers
    and their far-right supporters to derail Prime Minister
    Ariel Sharon's plan to remove all 21 settlements in the
    Gaza Strip and four of 120 enclaves in the West Bank.

    "We didn't expect anything from this court since the
    petitioners are Jews, patriots and settlers. And
    unfortunately this court is open for such arguments,
    humanistic and so on, when the petitioners are Arabs, terrorists that
    c
    ome to destroy this country. The decisions
    of the court is therefore fully expected, no surprise, and
    I'm not disappointed because I didn't have any
    expectations,"
    said Yoram Sheftel, a lawyer representing the petitioners.

    The court's rejection of the petitions means that
    Sharon, who has already overcome the last legislative
    hurdles to implementing the pullout, should be able to push
    ahead without fear of major legal obstacles.

    Settler leader Benny Eilon said they would continue
    with their campaign against the withdrawal.

    "We have to go ahead with our objections according to
    the democracy, we have many fields, we tried in the field
    of the Knesset (but parliament), we didn't succeed, we are
    trying here, and we will continue. There is a way for civil
    disobedience, there is a way of demonstrations, everything
    that is included under the umbrella of the democratic
    system- we have to do our best, including prayers to the
    lord of the universe that he will do what's
    necessary,"Eilon said.

    The closely watched High Court ruling followed the
    release of an opinion poll on Wednesday night showing
    Israeli public support for the withdrawal falling to a low
    point with less than half of the population now in favour.

    Many settlers see the West Bank and Gaza Strip as
    Israel's by biblical birthright and say any withdrawal from
    occupied land would be a "reward for Palestinian terrorism".

    Clashes erupted in the West Bank village of Salfit on
    Thursday during a demonstration against construction of the
    controversial West Bank separation barrier.

    Israeli soldiers dispersed the crowd demonstrating near
    the construction site adjacent to the Jewish settlement of
    Ariel in the West Bank
    Palestinian villagers and Israeli and foreign peace
    activists clashed with Israeli troops at the site and were
    then dispersed by tear gas canisters.

    "They (Israelis) are confiscating our land. Every day,
    every month they expend their territories, as what they
    call territories, on the account of our land," Sami, a
    resident of the village of Salfit, told Reuters Television.

    Sami said Israel is building the barrier on his land and
    the army is banning passage to the lands belonging to the
    village.

    The soldiers cordoned off the protesters in an attempt
    to prevent them from interfering with construction. The
    army detained some of the protesters, and declared the area
    a "closed military zone".

    Ambulances evacuated three protesters and a soldier
    injured during the clashes, according to Israeli media
    reports.
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