WEST BANK/GAZA/JERUSALEM/FRANCE: CLASHES CONTINUE BETWEEN ISRAELIS AND PALESTINIANS IN NABULUS

Record ID: 400780

  • Title: WEST BANK/GAZA/JERUSALEM/FRANCE: CLASHES CONTINUE BETWEEN ISRAELIS AND PALESTINIANS IN NABULUS
  • Date: 5th January 2003
  • Summary: (W4) NABLUS, WEST BANK (JANUARY 5, 2004) (REUTERS) 1. SLV ISRAELI ARMOURED PERSONNEL CARRIER DRIVING IN STREET 0.09 2. LV PALESTINIANS THROWING STONES 0.15 3. SLV ISRAELI ARMOURED PERSONNEL CARRIER IN CITY 0.24 (W5) WEST BANK (FILE) (REUTERS) 4. LV/SLV OF SEPARATION FENCE ISRAEL IS CONSTRUCTING ACROSS WEST BANK/CHILDREN PL
  • Embargoed: 20th January 2003 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: NABLUS, WEST BANK/ WEST BANK AREAS/ GAZA/ JERUSALEM/ PARIS, FRANCE
  • City:
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Reuters ID: LVACX2DFUNWQFEHCEP9TNL803GC2
  • Story Text: Clashes continue between Israelis and
    Palestinians in Nablus, as Israel prepares to challenge
    the world court on its barrier fence across the West Bank.



    Clashes continued in the West Bank city of Nablus
    between Israeli troops and Palestinians on Monday
    (January 5).

    The Israeli army extended its operation in the West
    Bank city of Nablus igniting more clashes with Palestinian
    stone-throwers. The downtown area has been under curfew
    for at least 8 days as troops conducted house-to-house
    searches and carried out arrests of Palestinians the army
    says are planning attacks against Israelis.

    Meanwhile, the Israeli government might challenge the
    International Court of Justice's authority to judge, at the
    U.N.'s behest, Israel's construction of a West Bank barrier.

    Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie on Monday
    pointed out his problems with the fence.

    "The fence is illegal and is not accepted. It is an act
    of the occupation. The General Assembly has taken a
    decision to transfer the issue of the barrier to the
    International Court in order hear their opinion about this
    fence -- is it legal or not? The International Court has
    started to look at the viewpoints of the countries, and
    they asked for the opinion of the League, the Palestinian
    Liberation Organisation and Palestinian Authority. It is no
    secret that we have a legal team, international and
    Palestinian and Arab lawyers in order to face the issue,"
    Qurie said.

    Israeli concern about the impending hearings in the
    Hague-based World Court was underscored on Monday (January
    5) when Justice Minister Yosef Lapid of the centrist Shinui
    party called for the routing of the controversial West Bank
    barrier to be reconsidered lest its annexation of occupied
    land draw international sanctions against Israel.

    "We must review the fence's routing," Lapid said,
    referring to parts of the barrier which loop away from the
    West Bank boundary and into occupied land to enclose Jewish
    settlements.

    Israel calls the network of fences and concrete
    barricades a security precaution that has already thwarted
    more than two-dozen Palestinian suicide bombings.

    Palestinians have condemned the barrier as a new Berlin
    Wall, and a land grab that would deprive them of territory
    they seek for a state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to be
    created under the U.S.-backed road map peace plan by 2005.

    Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath met French
    Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin on Monday (January
    5) for talks on the current situation in the Middle East
    and the implementation of the road map.

    The plan, developed by the group of four international
    mediators the United Nations, the European Union, the
    United States and Russia becomes the key priority in the
    Middle East settlement.

    After meeting with his French counterpart, Nabil Shaath
    said that the European Union and France in particular
    should play a key role in the Middle East peace process but
    stressed that France's role was overshadowed by the
    Americans role on the ground.

    "But I can see also, in an American election year, that
    Europe has the opportunity and the absolute requirement
    that it plays a more active role in getting a peace
    process, in enforcing a cease-fire, in stopping the
    building of the wall, in installing observers on the
    ground. All of these are important roles that come out of
    the road map," he said.

    The plan has been approved by the international
    community as well as by Palestinians and Israelis. One of
    its main provisions agrees on the establishment of a
    Palestinian state by 2005.



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