GAZA/WEST BANK/JERUSALEM: ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER ARIEL SHARON HAS MET WITH HIS CABINET TO DISCUSS A CONTROVERSIAL SECURITY FENCE

Record ID: 400798

  • Title: GAZA/WEST BANK/JERUSALEM: ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER ARIEL SHARON HAS MET WITH HIS CABINET TO DISCUSS A CONTROVERSIAL SECURITY FENCE
  • Date: 21st September 2003
  • Summary: (W4) GAZA (SEPTEMBER 21, 2003) (REUTERS) 1. LV CAR CARRYING PALESTINIAN PRIME MINISTER-DESIGNATE AHMED QURIE (ALSO KNOWN AS ABU-ALA) ARRIVING 0.06 2. MCU QURIE WALKING INTO MEETING 0.34 3. LV JOURNALISTS GATHERING OUTSIDE 0.41 4. MCU (Arabic) FORMER PALESTINIAN CABINET MEMBER FREIH ABU MEDDEIN SAYING: "The chances for success are ne
  • Embargoed: 6th October 2003 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: GAZA / RAMALLAH, WEST BANK / JERUSALEM
  • City:
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Reuters ID: LVA6PHHMH93G66FFEJURP3SKHE54
  • Story Text: Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has met
    with his cabinet to discuss a controversial security fence.



    Palestinian Prime Minister-designate Ahmed Qurie
    left the West Bank city of Ramallah, and arrived in Gaza on
    Sunday (September 21) to convene the members of the
    Palestinian Legislative Council.

    Qurie, (also known as Abu-Ala) was due to discuss the
    possible members of the new Palestinian government he is
    wishing to form. Arafat appointed Qurie prime minister
    after Mahmoud Abbas resigned from the post over what he
    called "obstructions" by Arafat and Israel to his peace
    moves.

    Next week, Qurie is expected to form the new
    Palestinian cabinet, which officials say is likely to
    include a supporter of the militant group Hamas and a
    moderate favoured by the United States (U.S.).

    "Designate Ahmed Qurie is exerting every possible
    effort he is trying to with intensive consultations with
    all political spectrum in the Palestinian society -
    factions, political parties, individuals personalities in
    the West Bank and Gaza and East Jerusalem in order to form
    his Cabinet," said Palestinian Legislative Council member
    Saeb Erekat about Qurie's latest political efforts.

    Others cast doubt on whether a new cabinet would
    improve chances for peace considering the faces across the
    negotiation table would remain the same.

    "The chances for success are nearly absolutely
    impossible because of Israel and the United States. But it
    is an experience that we will have to undertake," said
    former Palestinian cabinet member Freih Aby Meddein before
    entering the meeting in Gaza.

    Israel says it will not co-operate with any Palestinian
    government controlled by Arafat, but Israel TV said
    two-thirds of the mooted cabinet members appeared to be
    Arafat loyalists.

    Palestinians say Israeli army closures and operations
    in the West Bank and Gaza Strip hamper any efforts to rein
    in militants, who Israel says are goaded on by Arafat.

    Arafat, 74, denies this charge.

    The Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, met with his
    Cabinet on Sunday (September 21) to further discuss the
    plans for the separation fence between Israel and the West
    Bank.

    Sharon will send a high-ranking delegation, including
    his Chief of Staff Dov Wiesglass, to Washington later in
    the day to try to defuse U.S. opposition to the routing of
    a security barrier Israel is building through the West Bank.

    The U.S. has said it is considering how much of a $9
    billion loan guarantee package it will deduct in response
    to Jewish settlement-building in the West Bank and that the
    barrier, which shields some settlements, could be an issue.

    Israel says the barrier, a mix of fences and walls, is
    to keep suicide bombers out of its cities.

    Palestinians call it a "new Berlin Wall" expropriating
    farmland and in effect annexing terrain they seek for a
    state under the U.S.-backed peace plan.

    Cabinet Minister Uzi Landau said that Israel will
    continue with its plans for the fence regardless of the
    U.S. position.

    "With all due respect and all the appreciation that we
    have for the United States, the immediate responsibility of
    the government of Israel is to the safety of its people.

    That is our prime commitment and due to this, and in
    particular in view of the tremendous casualties that we
    have paid because of suicide bombings and terrorist
    attacks, we need to have the fence east of Areil," Landau
    said.

    The senior Israeli source said two options were on the
    table -- extending the barrier into the West Bank to
    include settlements with 30,000 Jews, an option demanded by
    rightist ministers, or separate fences enclosing individual
    settlements.

    U.S. officials want the barrier built as close as
    possible to the "Green Line" boundary between Israel and
    the West Bank, and not looped eastward to include Ariel, a
    major settlement 20 km (12 miles) inside the territory.

    The U.S.-engineered "road map" peace plan requires
    Israel to freeze settlement activity in the West Bank and
    Gaza Strip and Palestinians to halt militant attacks to
    pave the way for a Palestinian state by 2005.




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