WEST BANK: PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT ACCUSES ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER ARIEL SHARON OF TRYING TO TOPPLE HIM

Record ID: 400714

  • Title: WEST BANK: PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT ACCUSES ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER ARIEL SHARON OF TRYING TO TOPPLE HIM
  • Date: 7th December 2001
  • Summary: (U6) RAMALLAH, WEST BANK (DECEMBER 5, 2001) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. SET UP SHOT MV PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT YASSER ARAFAT SITTING AT HIS DESK IN HIS OFFICE 0.04 2. SCU ARAFAT READING THE KORAN 0.05 3. MV ARAFAT SITTING WITH JOURNALISTS AND PALESTINIAN MINISTERS 0.09 4. SCU SOUNDBITE (English) PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT YASSER ARAFAT, ASKE
  • Embargoed: 22nd December 2001 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: RAMALLAH, WEST BANK
  • City:
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Reuters ID: LVABFMXZY98JDW5U1RMB4KMUV107
  • Story Text: After Israel launched a series of retaliatory Israeli
    air strikes on the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Palestinian
    President Yasser Arafat has accused Israeli Prime Minister
    Ariel Sharon of trying to topple him.

    Gunfire has erupted between Palestinians in the West Bank
    town of Beit Jala and Israeli soldiers guarding the Jewish
    settlement of Gilo -- a frequent flashpoint in the ongoing
    violence.

    Speaking to Reuters television on Wednesday (December
    5) Palestinian president Yasser Arafat said Israeli leader
    Ariel Sharon was trying to oust him and the whole Palestinian
    Authority.

    "Not only me, but me and the Palestinian Authority and the
    Palestinian people and the Palestinian Authority. And you are
    seeing that they are escalating their military attacks
    everywhere, in Gaza Strip and the West Bank, complete
    siege for all our towns and cities and villages and bombing
    everywhere," Arafat said.

    A spokesman for Sharon denied the accusation.

    Israel launched air strikes on Palestinian security
    installations on Monday and Tuesday in retaliation for suicide
    bombings that killed 25 people in Jerusalem and Haifa last
    weekend.

    The United States and Israel have urged Arafat to act now
    to rein in militant groups behind the attacks.

    But in fresh violence on Wednesday, a Palestinian suicide
    bomber blew himself up outside a Jerusalem luxury hotel on
    Wednesday, wounding three people in the latest in a wave of
    attacks. The Jerusalem Brigades of the militant group Islamic
    Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack. In a statement
    faxed to Reuters, it identified the bomber as Daoud Ali Ahmed
    Abu Sway from the village of Artas near Bethlehem in the West
    Bank.

    Israel has pointed the finger at Arafat for all the recent
    bombings, saying he has failed to rein in militants.

    Arafat said in the interview he would do his best to reign
    in the violence, adding that he wanted to pursue the hopes for
    peace that had been forged with the late Israeli premier
    Yitzak Rabin.

    "What I am looking for the peace of the brave which I had
    signed with my late partner Rabin who have been killed by
    these fanatic groups in Israel. We have to remember that,
    these fanatic groups now are trying to kill the peace process
    and not only the peace process. To follow up their aggressions
    against the Palestinian people everywhere."
    Palestinian gunmen and Israeli troops exchanged fired on
    Wednesday (December 5) at a frequent flashpoint in the West
    Bank hours after a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up
    outside a Jerusalem luxury hotel, wounding three people in the
    latest in a wave of attacks which U.S. President George W.

    Bush said Yasser Arafat must stop.

    In Rome, Pope John Paul urged Israel and the Palestinians
    to break free of this useless spiral of violence, saying at a
    weekly audience that violence can never resolve conflicts, but
    only increase them with dramatic consequences.

    The militant Islamic group Hamas has claimed
    responsibility for the weekend suicide attacks in Jerusalem
    and the northern city of Haifa and has vowed there will be
    more to come.

    The violence has undermined a U.S. peace mission launched
    last week by former Marine Corps general Anthony Zinni.

    Washington wants peace in the Middle East so it can cement
    Arab support for its war against terrorism.

    Close to 1,000 Palestinians and Israelis have been killed
    since the Palestinian uprising began in September 2000.


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