US Pushes Peace Plan but Sharon Slams Palestinians

24/10/2002| IslamWeb

HIGHLIGHTS: Israel Criticizes Washington's U.S.-led "Roadmap" Initiative as Being Short on Security Guarantees While Palestinians Say it's Lacking on Timetables & Mechanisms of Enforcement||Burns Builds on Bush's Policy of Freezing out Arafat||Van Explodes in Nablus Injuring 10 Palestinians||Occupation Forces Demolish Palestinian Houses in Nablus and the Central Jordan Valley||Van Explodes in Nablus Injuring 10 Palestinians||10 Israeli Bedouin Soldiers Including an Occupation Army Officer Arrested on Suspicion of Spying for Hezbollah||Palestinian Accused of Betraying Hamas Chief on Trial in Gaza|| STORY: Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon accused Palestinians of having no interest in peace as he prepared to meet a U.S. envoy on Thursday to discuss a fresh international plan to end the intractable Middle East conflict.

Both sides voiced wariness toward the U.S.-led "roadmap" initiative with Israeli officials saying it was short on security guarantees and Palestinians saying it lacked timetables and mechanisms of enforcement.

The trip by U.S. Assistant Secretary of State William Burns was broadly seen as an attempt to dampen violence to help Washington woo Arab support for a possible campaign to disarm Iraq, rather than a propitious peace mission.

With the two sides far apart over who should do what first to revive a peace process moribund since Palestinians launched an uprising two years ago, Burns was given little chance of achieving a breakthrough during his two-day visit.

Burns said after meeting Israel's foreign minister on Wednesday that Washington was concerned about the misery of Palestinian civilians in the army's grip, which Palestinian officials say deepens bitterness that fans violence.

ARAFAT FROZEN OUT

Burns was expected to try to build on President Bush's Middle East policy speech in June in which he turned his back on Arafat, urging Palestinians to choose leaders "not compromised by terror." Arafat denies orchestrating violence.

Burns planned talks with Palestinian officials -- but not Arafat -- on Thursday to discuss the latest version of the "roadmap" drafted by the quartet of the United States, Russia, the European Union and United Nations.

Arafat, under pressure for democratic reforms, has decided the makeup of a new Palestinian cabinet and will present it to parliament early next week for approval, officials said.

VAN EXPLODES IN NABLUS INJURING 10 PALESTINIANS

Ten Palestinians were injured on Wednesday when a van exploded in a street in the Balata refugee camp in the Israeli-occupied West Bank city of Nablus, local witnesses said.

They said the van was boobytrapped by Israeli troops who had arrested five Palestinian militants shortly beforehand.

The Israeli occupation army has meanwhile destroyed the house of relatives of a late Palestinian resistance fighter, Shadi Ali Muttlak  Najmi in the Ein Beit Ilma refugee camp near the West Bank city of Nablus.

Najmi was killed in a March attack on a hotel in the Israeli coastal resort of Netanya which left two Israelis dead and 50 injured.

Israel has a systematic policy of destroying the homes of resistance men in an effort to deter future attacks. It has already destroyed dozens of homes, a policy slammed by rights groups as collective punishment.

Residents of the Palestinian village of Jiftlik in the centre of the Israeli-controlled Jordan Valley also said the army had moved in and destroyed two houses and three shops.

ISRAELI OCCUPATION ARMY FORCES ARREST 10 ISRAELIS INCLUDING AN ARMY OFFICER ON SUSPICION OF SPYING FOR HEZBOLLAH

Israeli occupation army forces meanwhile arrested a high-ranking occupation army officer and nine other people on suspicion of spying for the Lebanese Hezbollah fighters.

Hezbollah is a bitter enemy of Israel, and the prospect of an Israeli officer cooperating with the Lebanese resistance group is almost unheard of. Hezbollah often fired rockets at Israeli border villages during an 18-year war with Israeli troops who occupied a strip of southern Lebanon until May 2000.

The officer, a lieutenant colonel, was arrested on suspicion of providing Hezbollah with information on troop deployments in exchange for money and drugs, said Amnon Zichroni, the officer's lawyer. He said his client, whose name and role in the army have been banned from publication, denied the allegations.

The officer is a Bedouin, army officials said. Israeli Bedouins are not conscripted into the army, but many volunteer for service. Most Israeli Arabs, who make up about a sixth of the country's population, do not serve in the military.

In Beirut, Hezbollah officials had no comment.

PALESTINIAN ACCUSED OF BETRAYING HAMAS CHIEF ON TRIAL IN GAZA

At the same time, the trial opened of a Palestinian man accused of providing the Israeli occupation army with information that led to an air raid on the military leader of the Palestinian Resistance group Hamas, which left 17 people dead.

Akram al-Zatma, a 22-year-old student from Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, was charged with helping Israel kill Salah Shehade in Gaza City in July, prosecutor Khaled al-Qudra told AFP.

Shehade was killed together with his bodyguard, wife and daughter, as well as 13 other people, most of them children.
Zatma was arrested in early August and faces the death penalty if convicted.

A verdict was expected later Wednesday or on the following day, Qudra said.

PHOTO CAPTION

Two Palestinian boys carry food they received from the Islamic aid agency for the Palestinians in the old city of Hebron in the West Bank on October 23, 2002. (Nayef Hashlamoun/Reuter