Mideast Peacemaking in Balance As Intifadha Confrontations Simmer

29/03/2001| IslamWeb

JERUSALEM (Islamweb & Agencies) - Israel-Palestinian peacemaking moves hung in the balance on Sunday as both sides waited to see whether their weekend efforts would bear fruit despite low level violence and conflicting demands.
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres shook hands publicly at a Lisbon conference on Saturday after meeting for the first time since February in hopes of narrowing a yawning gap over peace moves. (Read photo caption below).
Peres, who had talks with Arafat over dinner on Friday, said it had been ``a good occasion to exchange views informally in a rather agreeable atmosphere'' and rebuild shattered confidence.
But Arafat later appeared to rule out a thaw in relations on his return to Gaza from Portugal, where he told reporters that he was ``sorry to say that criminal activities still continue from the Israeli side, especially from the settlers protected by Israeli troops, as well as closure of our cities and villages.''
Regional tensions remained high but, more than two weeks into a fragile cease-fire, violent incidents were relatively few.
Fighting on the Israel-Lebanon border on Friday and on-going Intifadha confrontations at West Bank and Gaza flashpoints overnight and on Saturday took the shine off Secretary of State Colin Powell's three-day peace mission to the area this week.
Lebanon and Syria warned that any Israeli reprisals for a Hizbollah northern border attack on its troops would endanger the region's volatile security.
Powell was seeking a way to end nine months of intercommunal bloodshed sparked by a Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation, in which about 600 people have been killed.
He persuaded the two sides on Thursday to agree to a seven-day period of complete cease-fire as a test of their commitment to press ahead with peace moves.

DISAGREEMENT OVER START OF CEASEFIRE
A source close to Friday's dinner meeting said Peres told Arafat that achieving seven straight days of calm would pave the way for a longer cooling-off period and set the peace plan in motion.
But ambiguity swirled over whether that period had yet begun.
Arafat said in Gaza after returning from Portugal that the seven-day countdown had started from Wednesday. On Friday, Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo declared the period ``starts from today.''
Sharon's spokesman, Raanan Gissin, had riposted that violence earlier in the day meant it had yet to begin.
In his speech to the Lisbon conference, Arafat called for more European Union observers to be sent to Palestinian-ruled territories to help consolidate the cease-fire. Israel opposes the large-scale dispatch of third-party observers to the area.
The plan, crafted by a panel headed by former U.S. senator George Mitchell, calls for a series of confidence-building measures, including an end to Jewish settlement construction on occupied Arab land, but Israel Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has vowed it will continue to facilitate ``natural growth.''
Arafat reportedly told Peres on Friday that his Palestinian Authority was trying to halt the violence, but its task would be made easier if Israel improved Palestinians' living conditions, for example by lifting blockades on their towns and villages.
In the West Bank on Saturday the Israeli army said its forces came under attack near Ramallah and in Hebron. There were no injuries.
Around 40 Jewish settlers chanted anti-Arab slogans at the site of the killing of a woman settler on Thursday near the town of Jenin.
At least 466 Palestinians, 119 Israelis and 13 Israeli Arabs have been killed since the Palestinian revolt again Israeli occupation erupted in late September after peace talks stalled.
Meanwhile, Sharon faced a personal hurdle on Saturday after the Belgian Le Soir newspaper reported the Brussels Public Prosecutor's Office had ruled a complaint accusing him of crimes against humanity was admissible in a Brussels court.
Israeli officials declined to comment.
Le Soir said a magistrate should now launch an investigation into events surrounding the killing of hundreds of Palestinians at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps during Israel's invasion of Lebanon in 1982 when Sharon was defense minister.
A 1983 Israeli state inquiry found Sharon indirectly responsible for the Sabra and Shatila killings when the Israeli army allowed Israeli-backed Christian Phalangist militiamen to enter the camp.
PHOTO CAPTION:
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, right, shakes hands with Israel's Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, left, on Saturday, June 30, 2001, during a Socialist International conference in Lisbon, Portugal. Peres and Arafat met Friday night in Lisbon to discuss the middle east situation. At center is Socialist International President and Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Guterres. (AP Photo/Gael Cornier)