D i v i s i o n f o r P a l e s t i n i a n R i g h t s
Chronological Review of Events Relating to the
Question of Palestine
Monthly media monitoring review
March 2001
1
Prime Minister-elect Ariel Sharon believes Israel's transfer of parts of the Occupied Territory to Palestinian rule is irreversible, even if the army has contingency plans for retaking them, adviser Raanan Gissin told Reuters in an interview. He was reacting to a Washington Post story that quoted IDF chief Shaul Mofaz as saying reoccupation was “a possible direction'” even though “I'm not sure we would be happy to do it, especially in built-up areas”. (Reuters)
Speaking at an extraordinary OAU Summit in Sirte, Libya, Chairman Arafat said Israel’s five months of aggression against the Palestinians and its policy of closures had cost the Palestinian economy more than US$3 billion, had increased the PA’s budget deficit, had caused unemployment to rise to 70 per cent, and had left more than 500 Palestinians dead and 22,000 wounded. Mr. Arafat added that this aggression against the Palestinian people would not bring Israel the security it needed. It could come only if Israel embraced the “peace of the brave” that would restore the rights of the Palestinians and would result in the declaration of a Palestinian State with East Jerusalem as its capital. He further urged the UN Security Council to call on Israel, which he said was using terror and forbidden weapons against the Palestinians, to end its aggression. (DPA)
2
At a luncheon with representatives of Israeli business, US ambassador Martin Indyk urged Israel to lift its economic blockade on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, warning that “the Palestinian economy is starting to collapse and the Palestinian Authority is on the brink of disintegrating”, with “deep potential for an explosion” and broader regional repercussions. In response to a question, he said the US would not support a redeployment of Israeli troops into areas under full Palestinian control. (AFP)
Israeli soldiers shot dead Mustafa Ramlawi, 42, from the Bureij Refugee Camp, when he allegedly tried to plant a bomb at a road junction near the “Netzarim” settlement in the Gaza Strip. Palestinian police denied the man was trying to plant a bomb, saying he was mentally handicapped and posed no threat to anybody, as everybody in the area knew. IDF later conceded its troops might have made a tragic mistake. In the West Bank town of El-Bireh, Israeli troops positioned at the “Psagot” settlement killed a nine-year-old Palestinian boy, Obai Darraj, after shooting in the direction of a group of children playing with cap guns, medical officials and witnesses said. Meanwhile, a 13-year-old Palestinian boy, Mohammed Mahmoud Hellis, died in a Gaza City hospital from the wounds he had suffered when shot in the head by soldiers on 27 February, while walking from school near the Karni crossing point between Israel and the Gaza Strip; witnesses said there were no clashes at the time. A fourth Palestinian, Abdel Karim Issa, 24, died after being shot in the stomach during a clash at the West Bank refugee camp of Kalandia, near Ramallah. (AFP, DPA)
3
Aida Stiha, a 43-year-old mother of three, was walking with her husband in El-Bireh, near Ramallah, when she was hit in the chest and killed by a machine-gun bullet fired from an Israeli army post in the nearby “Psagot” settlement. In Karuit, near Nablus, Ahmad Alam, 26, was shot in the head by Jewish settlers near the “Shiloh” settlement. The Israeli army said it shot dead another Palestinian, whose identity was not revealed, near the Palestinian locality of Huwara, also in the West Bank. (AFP)
5
Following a suicide bombing that killed four people in the Israeli town of Netanya on 4 March, US State Department Spokesman Richard Boucher condemned the bombing, asked the PA to “arrest those responsible and bring them to justice”, and called upon the two sides to “end the cycle of action and reaction” and renew bilateral security cooperation. In a statement published by the Swedish EU presidency, the EU appealed to Israeli and Palestinian authorities to “immediately re-engage in security cooperation in order to reverse the spiral of violence”. (AFP, DPA, Reuters)
The body of 20-year-old Palestinian Ussama Najhahia, with a bullet wound in his head, was found to the north of Jenin. Residents and medical officials said he had been killed during a gunfight with Israeli soldiers. Two Palestinians were shot and wounded, one of them seriously, by Israeli troops in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, near the “Gush Katif” settlement block, medical officials said. Witnesses said the men were not involved in clashes or a gunfight with soldiers when they were shot. In an attempt to reduce the increasing number of Palestinians shot while not involved in fighting Israelis, the National and Islamic Forces, a coalition of Palestinian factions, issues a statement carried in Al-Ayyam, in which it condemned shooting from populated centres and called on the police to enforce this. (AFP)
6
Speaking to staff on his final day in office, outgoing Israeli Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami warned that increased security initiatives alone would only foster a “framework of confrontation” with the Palestinians and suggested they should be combined with a political opening. He said the new Israeli Government should be given a chance “to go forward with the process, to improve the situation, to reduce the level of violence”. (AFP)
President Bush and Secretary of State Powell stressed their commitment to pushing the Middle East peace process forward in letters they addressed to Chairman Arafat on the occasion of Id al-Adha, the Palestinian news agency WAFA reported. (AFP)
UNRWA Commissioner-General Peter Hansen told a news briefing in Geneva that it would take more than five years to repair the damage inflicted on the Occupied Palestinian Territory over the past five months. He warned that UNRWA might have a US$65 million budget deficit for 2001, which, if not met, would force the Agency to cut food supplies, schooling and medical care. A US$40 million emergency appeal last October for Palestinian refugees in the Occupied Territory had been fully funded. A second appeal for US$39 million had been launched to generate jobs between March and May, but only US$5 million had been received thus far. US$80 million over six months was “a drop in the ocean to deal with the losses inflicted on the economy”, Mr. Hansen said. (AFP, Reuters)
A joint US-EU appeal for calm in the Middle East was issued as a result of a meeting in Washington between Secretary of State Powell and an EU delegation consisting of Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh, whose country holds the EU presidency, EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana, and EU Commissioner for External Affairs Chris Patten. Secretary Powell said, inter alia, that the US and the EU agreed that Israel should ease restriction on economic activity in the blockaded Occupied Palestinian Territory and expressed US appreciation for the financial support provided by the EU to the PA. (AFP, DPA, Reuters)
7
In a document distributed ahead of its expected investiture by the Knesset later in the day, the incoming Israeli Government under Prime Minister-elect Sharon issued its broad policy guidelines, listing as its top priorities the establishment of Israel’s security and efforts at achieving stability in the region. It pledged to make peace with its Arab neighbours even if it involved "painful compromises", but at the same time vowed to strengthen Jewish settlements and Israel's hold on Jerusalem. It said it would respect previous political agreements that were ratified by the parliament, subject to their being carried out by the other side, and would approach permanent status agreements on the basis of UN Security Council resolutions 242 and 338, which covered the principle of land for peace. It would work for the establishment of peace with the Palestinians through interim agreements, with possible redeployment in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip only if this would not hurt Israel's interests. (AFP)
IDF tightened its closure of the West Bank, following recent bomb attacks and ahead of the expected inauguration of Prime Minister-elect Sharon. The army dug a trench in a road connecting the West Bank towns of Birzeit and Ramallah, breaking water pipes and cutting telephone lines to the area in the process. The Israeli peace group Gush Shalom called this an act of “state terror”, while the Palestinian rights group LAW said that 25 Palestinian villages and their 65,000 residents had been affected. (AFP)
Ariel Sharon was sworn in as Israel’s new Prime Minister, after the Knesset approved his eight-party national unity Government with 72 votes in favour to 21 against. Mr. Sharon had earlier told the legislature that his Government’s “supreme mission” would be to wage a determined struggle against “violence and terror” and return a sense of security to the country. He had extended a “hand of peace” and had said that negotiations would be conducted with the Palestinians “for achieving political agreement but not under the pressure of terror and violence”, acknowledging that peace involved painful compromises for both sides. (AFP, Reuters, The Jerusalem Post – Internet Edition)
In his farewell address to the Knesset, former Prime Minister Barak said the new Israeli Government was not bound by understandings reached with the Palestinians at Camp David last year and at Taba in January. (DPA)
8
Chairman Araft sent a letter of congratulations to Prime Minister Sharon on his assumption of office and called for negotiations to be resumed on the basis of signed accords and international law, including UN resolutions 242, 338 and 194. (AFP, Reuters)
Prime Minister Sharon told reporters that he was ready to conduct negotiations with Chairman Arafat but only after calm was restored. (AFP, Reuters)
Jerusalem Mayor and Likud party member Ehud Olmert criticized Prime Minister Sharon’s omission from his Knesset investiture address of a reference to Jerusalem as the “united eternal capital of Israel under our sovereignty”, a phrase included in the prepared text but dropped in favour of a reference to the City as the Jewish people’s “eternal capital”. (AFP)
PA Cabinet Secretary-General Ahmad Abdel Rahman condemned the previous day’s statement by Secretary of State Powell to the International Relations Committee of the US House of Representatives that, despite the ongoing crisis in the Middle East, President Bush was committed to moving the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. When asked when such a move would take place, Mr. Powell had said “the process is ongoing. We have not started any actions yet and, in light of the very difficult situation that exists right now, we'll continue to examine how that process should start”. In criticizing the statement Mr. Abdel Rahman noted that “it contradicts the UN Security Council resolutions of 1947 and contradicts the US stand and the US letter of guarantees that the Madrid peace conference is based on”. (AFP, DPA)
9
Prime Minister Sharon sent a letter to Chairman Arafat stating that he was ready for the two to meet and try to end the bloodshed. “I believe that the only way to reach peace is by dialogue and through direct negotiations, on the basis of the written and signed agreements and obligations between us”, Mr. Sharon wrote, according to the text of the letter provided by his Office. Mr. Sharon’s spokesperson, however, made clear that there was no change in his policy that violence must stop before actual peace negotiations could resume. (AFP, Reuters)
A Palestinian shepherd was shot and seriously wounded by a settler south of Hebron. At least 10 Palestinian stone throwers were lightly injured when Israeli soldiers fired rubber-coated steel bullets at them during clashes in Ramallah after a protest march of some 1,000 Palestinians. (AFP, Ha’aretz – English Internet Edition)
10
Addressing the Palestinian Council meeting in Gaza City, Chairman Arafat said the Palestinians had made the “strategic option of peace” and called on Prime Minister Sharon to resume talks where they had left off with his predecessor. He called for a just “peace of the brave”, based on UN resolutions, that would establish a Palestinian State with Jerusalem as its capital. (AFP)
A Palestinian man was shot dead during Israeli shelling at the Karni crossing point between the Gaza Strip and Israel. Three Palestinians, two cameramen working for Reuters and one photographer working for AFP, were beaten up by Jewish settlers in Hebron, while covering clashes between the settlers and Hebron’s Palestinian residents. (AFP, Reuters)
11
Referring to Chairman Arafat’s speech before the Palestinian Council the previous day, Prime Minister Sharon said in an interview with US Fox television network that he was “very sorry and disappointed” that Mr. Arafat had not called for a cessation of hostilities. The Secretary-General of the PA Presidency, Tayyeb Abdul Raheem, responded by saying that apparently the Israeli side had decided to refuse the hand Chairman Arafat had extended to peace and security. (AFP)
12
About 1,500 Palestinians, many of them students unable to attend classes at Birzeit University because of the blockade, marched in Ramallah in protest against the destruction of the four-million-dollar road by IDF, which dug a trench two metres deep and more than 150 metres long to tighten the blockade imposed on Ramallah. Clashes flared when the Israeli soldiers tried to arrest a Palestinian driver of a bulldozer who came to fix the road, which was blocked by five IDF jeeps and two tanks. Protesters threw stones after soldiers sprayed tear gas at the driver. Israeli troops shot and killed Abdel Khader Mohammed Ibrahim, 26, and wounded at least 15 more Palestinians. PA Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo, standing at the trench, told protesters that the Palestinian people were determined to confront the siege, this was the beginning of the battle, not the end of it, and the Arab world should assist. The Office of Prime Minister Sharon said in a statement that the blockade was tightened because Palestinians were planning to attack Israelis from the area. Speaking to Likud party members, Mr. Sharon said the IDF commander in the Ramallah area had decided to seal off the city completely after arresting a group of Palestinians who were planning to carry out a “serious terrorist attack” in Jerusalem, so as to ensure that the remaining members of the group did not flee to carry out the attack. (AFP, Reuters)
Israeli Defence Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer told reporters after a meeting with Jewish settler leaders that he had given the order to lift closures on Tulkarm, Qalqilya, Bethlehem and Hebron but not on Ramallah, due to what he described as continuing reports about the dispatch from there of terrorists with the aim of entering Israeli territory with a car bomb. (Reuters)
Foreign Ministers of the League of Arab States, meeting in Cairo in preparation of the forthcoming Arab Summit in Amman, denounced the Israeli tightening of the blockade of the Occupied Palestinian Territory as “barbaric escalation” and asked the UN Security Council to hold an urgent meeting to provide international protection for the Palestinians and prevent a “regional deterioration”. An Arab League statement also said that the Ministers had decided to make direct contact with the US, Russia and the European Union, to ask them to take a stand against Israeli measures, especially the blockade. Addressing the ministerial meeting, PLO Political Department Head Farouk Kaddoumi said roadblocks set up by Israeli troops in the Occupied Palestinian Territory had resulted in the breaking up of the West Bank into 40 isolated sectors and the Gaza Strip into five. He added that increased Israeli security prevented movement in these areas and in some cases left towns and villages without water supply. Opening the Foreign Ministers’ meeting, Arab League Secretary-General Esmat Abdel Meguid had cautioned the US, Russia, the EU and all countries and international organizations against the disastrous consequences for the region and their interests in the region of moving their embassies to Jerusalem. (AFP, DPA, Reuters)
At the first meeting of his full Cabinet, Prime Minister Sharon outlined five policy guidelines for tackling the crisis with the Palestinians, with the main priority being the restoration of security to Israel. His other policy principles were: halting Palestinian violence, moving to prevent the internationalization of the conflict and reducing the possibility of a spill-over across the region. He called for the safeguarding of “all possibilities for resuming peace talks with the Palestinians but only after the cessation of violence”. (AFP, Reuters, XINHUA)
The PA said in a statement that the Israeli army had started using “new and dangerous” nail-like ammunition against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. It said it had only recently become aware of the use of such anti-personnel ammunition, known as “fléchettes”, which look like ordinary nails with tiny fins on the end and are used by special forces as a “silent killer”. Such projectiles riddled the bodies of two Palestinians, Mustafa al-Rimlawi and Ziad Ayad, on 2 and 10 March. Asked if the army was using fléchettes, an IDF spokesman repeated a statement issued on 11 March, which said merely that it uses the “means best suited to the overall security conditions and specific threats”. (Reuters)
UNRWA Commissioner-General Peter Hansen told the Arab League Foreign Ministers in Cairo they should increase their funding of the Agency’s operations, otherwise the refugees faced cuts in food supplies and medical care. “Increased Arab support and contributions… is our only hope in making ends meet in the year 2001 and beyond”, he said. Mr. Hansen reminded the Ministers that, although Arab countries had agreed in 1987 to increase their contributions to 7.8 per cent of UNRWA's annual budget, total Arab contributions to UNRWA's budget in 2000 were just 1.9 per cent. (Reuters)
Foreign Minister Shimon Peres told Israeli public television that Prime Minister Sharon, Defence Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer and himself were against the collective punishment of Palestinians and did not rejoice in the Palestinians’ suffering. On the contrary, he said, the Israeli leadership wanted to ease the limitations on freedom of movement inside the Occupied Palestinian Territory, while at the same time it was determined to use “all weapons… to fight terrorism, except those which reinforce terrorism”, and called for a differentiation between terrorists and the civilian population. On the peace process, Mr. Peres made a distinction between “real negotiations”, on the one hand, and “contacts on issues such as security, which have never stopped and need to continue if we want to fight against terrorism”. (AFP)
In response to Arab criticism of Secretary of State Powell’s recent statement in Congress that Jerusalem was the capital of Israel, State Department Spokesman Richard Boucher said that there was no change in US policy, which “has always been and remains that this [the status of Jerusalem] is an issue to be resolved by the parties in negotiation”. (Reuters)
Following talks with Chairman Arafat in Gaza City, Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh said that the EU remained committed to promoting peace talks but what it could do depended on what the parties wanted it to do. She said she intended to discuss with Prime Minister Sharon the possibility of continuing the peace talks and of redressing the current situation. Ms. Lindh, whose country held the rotating EU presidency for the first semester of 2001 and who was visiting the region with a delegation also including European External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten, discussed with Chairman Arafat the dire economic situation and reiterated the EU’s commitment to political and financial support for the Palestinians. For his part, Chairman Arafat said the financial situation of the PA was “very difficult”, due to the Israeli blockade. After the meeting Mr. Patten said that the collapse of the PA under economic pressure would not augur well for peace. (AFP, Reuters, XINHUA)
In a letter to the UN Security Council, the Permanent Observer of Palestine to the United Nations Dr. Nasser Al-Kidwa asked for an immediate meeting of the Council to discuss “the necessary measures, including the establishment of a United Nations observer force, to contribute in providing protection for the Palestinian civilians”, who are now “suffocated and besieged” under the Israeli occupation. In Washington, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said “[a]ny sort of protection or observers, whatever, should be done between the parties, by agreement of the parties… in a way that is acceptable to the parties”. (DPA, Reuters)
13
Following the meeting of Arab Foreign Ministers in Cairo, Arab League Secretary-General Esmat Abdel-Meguid told reporters that a sum of US$40 million would be set aside from the Jerusalem Fund for each of the next six months to pay the PA employees’ salaries. (Reuters)
Under criticism from the US and the EU, Israel reopened two roads to Ramallah, while earlier on the IDF had started lifting blockades on Tulkarm, Qalqilya, Bethlehem and Hebron. However, PA Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo said in Ramallah that the change was “cosmetic” and aimed at “deceiving the world that the closure has been lifted”. Residents reported only a slight easing of restrictions of movement, with some cars allowed through checkpoints. A Palestinian man, Naim Beni Jamaa, 39, died of a chronic heart condition after being turned back after waiting for one hour at a checkpoint into Nablus, where he was to be hospitalized, according to family members. IDF said it was looking into the incident. (AFP, Reuters)
EU External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten told a press conference in Jerusalem that if the Palestinian economy continued to deteriorate, more people plunged into poverty, and the PA was undermined, it would be more difficult to get back to any political stability and to relaunch the peace process. The EU delegation, including Mr. Patten and Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh, also raised at their meeting with Prime Minister Sharon the issue of Israeli withholding of funds due to the PA. (AFP)
Israeli bulldozers backed by armoured cars destroyed two Palestinian houses and a workshop in Beit Omar, a Palestinian village north of Hebron, witnesses said. A spokesman for Israel’s civil administration in the West Bank said the action was taken because the structures were near an area where a Jewish settler had been killed and had been built “illegally”. (AFP)
Following consultations with Prime Minister Sharon, Foreign Minister Shimon Peres issued a set of guidelines for explaining Israeli policy vis-à-vis the Palestinians:
– Israel is determined to achieve peace with its Palestinian neighbours.
– Israel’s top priority is the return of peace and security for Israelis.
– The Government calls for tranquility in order to conduct peace negotiations.
– The Government aspires to stabilize the situation in the territories and ease conditions for Palestinian civilians not involved in terrorism. Without harming security, conditions will be made easier when an area is quiet.
– Israel’s easing of the closure of four West Bank towns demonstrates that such blockades are based specifically on “a grave security alert”, as is the case in Ramallah, and therefore do not represent a change in Israeli policy.
(AFP, Ha’aretz – English Internet Edition)
14
Israeli troops at the Karni crossing between the Gaza Strip and Israel killed 19-year-old Ahmed Banar, resident of a nearby village, although no clashes were taking place in the area. Witnesses said the main Gaza Strip road had been closed at the time to allow a convoy of settlers travelling from Karni to the nearby “Netzarim” settlement. A 50-year-old Palestinian woman, Amira Nassir, a diabetic from the village of Faqou’a, died on her way to hospital, when Israeli troops refused to let the car carrying her through a roadblock at the entrance of Jenin, a relative and medical sources said. At least three Palestinians were injured when Israeli soldiers fired rubber bullets and tear gas at a crowd of hundreds protesting at travel restrictions around Ramallah. (AFP, AP, Reuters)
The Organization of the Islamic Conference Secretary-General Abdelouahed Belkeziz called on the international community, especially the Middle East peace process co-sponsors US and Russia, “to intervene immediately to stop Israeli attacks against the Palestinian people”. He urged the UN Security Council to create an international force to protect the Palestinians and press Israeli into lifting their blockade on the Occupied Palestinian Territory (AFP, XINHUA)
Islamic Development Bank (IDB) President Ahmad Mohammad Ali said in a statement that IDB had paid a first installment of US$15 million, out of a total of US$60 million that the Bank had decided to allocate to the PA. Mr. Ali said the Bank had also decided to allocate an additional US$10 million to the PA Health Ministry to finance the purchase of medical equipment, salaries and training. (AFP, Reuters)
Israeli forces erected a new military post east of Nablus, to provide “security and protection” for settlers living in the area, Israel Radio reported. Military sources noted that Israeli vehicles were intensively shot at in that area and denied the post had been set up on Palestinian farms. (XINHUA)
A statement issued by the Russian Foreign Ministry expressed “profound concern” over the continuing violence and loss of life in the Middle East, a situation aggravated “by actions of the Israeli side aimed at isolating the West Bank and Gaza with the use of heavy military equipment”. The statement said that no actions by terrorists could justify such cruel measures and stressed the importance of reciprocal steps to end the violence. (AFP, ITAR-TASS)
B’Tselem filed a complaint with the Israeli military police, alleging serious misconduct by five IDF soldiers, who beat a Palestinian man “black and blue” on 13 March, at a roadblock on the Bethlehem-Jerusalem road. B’Tselem researcher Najib Abu-Rakiah was visiting the roadblock to monitor the treatment of Palestinians and saw soldiers picking out 40 of them, lining them up against a wall, and selecting one, who was led away by five soldiers. A few minutes later, the five returned with the Palestinian, who was let free but collapsed to the ground. The man was taken to a Bethlehem clinic, where it was found that he had been kicked in the back, ribs and face. A B’Tselem spokesman said a number of Palestinians had recently complained to the organization of brutality by IDF soldiers at roadblocks around Palestinian towns. (Ha’aretz – English Internet Edition)
In a letter to the UN Security Council, Arab League Secretary-General Esmat Abdel-Meguid called for the establishment and deployment in the Occupied Palestinian Territory of an international force “as soon as possible”. (XINHUA)
Secretary of State Powell, clarifying the US position on Jerusalem, said that a possible embassy move from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem had to be handled “with delicacy” by the US, because of the instability in the region. He declined to take a position on the status of Jerusalem, saying “it is up to the parties to ultimately make judgements on this issue, even though one party or another may make claims with respect to their belief”. Mr. Powell added that the two parties should resolve the issue through negotiations, which he was confident would begin again “at some time”. (Reuters)
The UN Security Council held separate private meetings with Israeli Foreign Minister Peres and Permanent Observer of Palestine to the UN Nasser Al-Kidwa. Ambassador Al-Kidwa told reporters that the Council had agreed to hold a formal debate on 15 March, when he hoped it would approve a resolution authorizing a “UN presence” in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Mr. Peres said there was no need for protection for the Palestinians, as Israel was only reacting to violence that they initiated and would stop when they did. US ambassador James Cunningham said his country did not consider it a good idea to pursue a path not supported by both parties. The Council President, Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Yel’chenko, told the press there was no unanimity in the Council on the proposed UN force, but “almost all members delivered a very strong message to [Mr. Peres] that they are in favour of it”. He added that there were many details to be discussed and there was a role for the Secretary-General to play, consulting the parties. (AFP, Reuters)
The Israeli security cabinet decided late in the day to ease some of the restrictions imposed on the Palestinians. Raw materials and merchandize would be let into the Palestinian areas and fishing would be allowed off the coast of the Gaza Strip. Free movement would be permitted within the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, but not between these two areas or into Israel. Israel would end its blockade of Palestinian towns wherever possible and subject to security considerations. Prime Minister Sharon said further Israeli gestures would be examined, but only toward the civilian population and not the Palestinian Authority, due to what he described as the latter’s involvement in attacks against Israelis. (AFP, DPA, Reuters)
15
A 17-year-old Palestinian was found dead near Qalqilya and Palestinian sources said he had bled to death after being shot by Israeli soldiers in clashes on 14 March. An 11-year-old boy was said to be hospitalized in critical condition, after being wounded in rioting north of Ramallah, again on 14 March. Israel Radio quoted the IDF as saying that soldiers fired rubber-coated metal bullets during both clashes. (DPA)
Seven Palestinian children suffered light injuries, when Israeli soldiers threw a stun grenade into a Hebron schoolyard. Witnesses said there were no clashes in the area at the time. (AFP, Reuters)
Palestinians in East Jerusalem held a one-day strike, with shops closed and students boycotting schools. This was in protest against the Israeli siege of Jerusalem and the rest of the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Palestinian lawmaker Hatem Abdel-Qader said. (Reuters)
The UN Security Council discussed agenda item “The situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question”, at the request of the United Arab Emirates as chair of the Arab Group. Statements were made by representatives of 32 Member States and Palestine. The Council decided to continue its consideration of the item early in the week of 19 March 2001. (Journal of the United Nations, 16 March 2001 (No. 2001/51 – Part II))
16
Israeli troops shot dead Mohammed Abu Awn, 20, a Palestinian man sitting near protesters hurling stones at Israeli troops guarding the road leading to the “Netzarim” settlement in the Gaza Strip. Earlier in the day, Israeli troops had shot and wounded three Palestinians, again in the Gaza Strip. One of them, a 17-year-old Palestinian boy, was in a critical condition after having been shot in the eye with a live bullet near the Karni crossing point between Israel and the Gaza Strip, at a time when there were no clashes, witnesses said. At least seventeen Palestinians, among many hundreds protesting against the siege of Ramallah, were lightly injured when Israeli troops fired rubber-coated steel bullets at them from a checkpoint near the city. No clashes were reported during demonstrations against the closure in Nablus and Tulkarm. (AFP, Reuters)
Israeli Defence Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer approved a series of measures to ease further the closure on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Israel Radio reported. 500 Palestinian businessmen would be permitted to enter Israel and crossing points between Israel and the Gaza Strip would be allowed to operate for commercial traffic after cargo was checked by the army. The Rafah passage between the Gaza strip and Egypt would open for incoming traffic during the day but outgoing traffic would be allowed only “on humanitarian grounds”. The Allenby crossing with Jordan would open to all traffic during day-time. (AFP, DPA, Reuters)
17
A meeting was held between Avi Dichter, head of Israel's internal security service Shin Beth, and Palestinian intelligence chief Amin Al-Hindi at the Beit Hanoun (Erez) crossing point between Israel and the Gaza Strip. (AFP, Reuters, XINHUA)
As the UN Commission on the Status of Women suspended its forty-fifth session, it adopted, inter alia, a resolution on the situation of and assistance to Palestinian women, by a recorded vote of 31 in favour to 1 against (United States), with 1 abstention (Rwanda). In its resolution, the Commission recommended that the Economic and Social Council call upon the concerned parties, as well as the international community, to exert all the necessary efforts towards ensuring the immediate resumption of the peace process on its agreed basis, and call for measures for tangible improvements in the difficult situation on the ground and living conditions faced by Palestinian women and their families. By other terms, the Council would also demand that Israel, the occupying Power, comply fully with the provisions and principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the regulations annexed to The Hague Convention of 1907 and the Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War (12 August 1949), in order to protect the rights of Palestinian women and their families. (UN Press Release WOM/1281 of 19 March 2001; M2 Presswire)
18
Two Palestinians, one of them a 10-year-old boy, were shot and wounded by Israeli troops during clashes near the Karni crossing point between the Gaza Strip and Israel, hospital sources said. The two were in a stable condition in hospital after being hit by live ammunition fired by soldiers on a group of stone-throwers. Earlier in the day, Palestinian witnesses said the army had destroyed several acres of farmland near Karni. (AFP)
Israel for the past two weeks has been blocking the provision of oil and domestic gas supplies to Khan Yunis and Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, the head of the Palestinian Authority's oil commission Luay Arandas said, adding that the Gaza Strip's reserves were insufficient. (AFP)
Egyptian Foreign Minister Amre Moussa expressed the hope that the UN Security Council would adopt a positive position concerning the issue of protecting the Palestinians. He said Egypt was calling on the members of the Council to shoulder their responsibility to protect the Palestinian people and their human rights. “Protecting Israel and not the victim will in the long ran have negative implications on international diplomacy and its ability to move things towards a comprehensive peace”, Mr. Moussa said, adding that “this would send a clear signal to Israel that it can continue to challenge standards”. (DPA)
En route to Washington, Prime Minister Sharon confirmed that he had ordered Israeli security officials to meet their Palestinian counterparts with a view to halting violence but said peace talks could not resume “as long as there are murders and attacks”. Ha’aretz reported that Mr. Sharon had told his Cabinet that he had no objection to Ministers meeting with their Palestinian counterparts but “warned against conducting any negotiations with them”. (AFP, Reuters)
In a letter to Israeli Attorney-General Elyakim Rubinstein released to the press, the Public Committee Against Torture charged that the General Security Service had used some of the interrogation methods specifically banned by the High Court of Justice in its interrogation of a Palestinian detainee. The Committee said that 36-year-old Nassar Iyad, picked up near the “Netzarim” settlement on 29 January and held in Ashkelon prison, had been forced to sit on a chair bent over, until his head touched the floor for a prolonged period of time. Interrogators had also prevented Iyad from sleeping for seven nights, had placed handcuffs tightly around his wrists, and had beaten him. (The Jerusalem Post – Internet Edition)
19
Chairman Arafat’s PLO deputy, Mahmoud Abbas, said in an interview with the Voice of Palestine radio that there was no “complete boycott” between Israelis and Palestinians but unofficial meetings continued regarding all issues and not only security matters. He added that the Palestinians would reject any Israeli moves to conclude further interim agreements before reaching a final peace deal and would not accept to delay any of the final status issues, like water. (AFP, Reuters)
Israeli soldiers fired tear gas and stun grenades at about 600 women demonstrating against Israel's closure of the West Bank, as they passed a military checkpoint north of Jerusalem. According to Palestinian sources, 15 people, including an eight-year-old boy, were taken to local hospitals, where most were treated and released. Palestinian Council member Hanan Ashrawi was lightly hurt in the leg. In the Gaza Strip, Palestinian hospital officials said four Palestinians between 12 to 15 years of age had been lightly to moderately injured by Israeli gunfire. (AFP, DPA, Reuters, XINHUA)
The blockade of Bethlehem, lifted under a partial easing of restrictions on Palestinian-controlled areas, was reinstated after a settler was shot dead on a road near the “Neve Daniel” settlement south of the city. (AFP, Reuters)
Following the killing of a settler near Bethlehem, Prime Minister Sharon issued a statement in Washington calling “on all countries that aspire to peace to make clear to Arafat that his acts are very serious and warn there will be a high price paid for whoever harms innocent civilians and destabilizes the Middle East”. Mr. Sharon spoke by phone with Foreign Minister Peres and Defence Minister Ben-Eliezer on the “steps to be taken”. The statement issued by the Prime Minister’s office condemned the PA for rejecting what it called Mr. Sharon’s bid to ease restrictions on civilian life while cracking down on “terrorist elements”. The PA was accused of deepening involvement in violence, including Chairman Arafat’s Force 17 and members of Fatah. (Reuters)
Ha’aretz reported that Prime Minister Sharon was ready to evacuate some Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip but not the West Bank if Chairman Arafat accepted a plan for long-term interim agreements. Ha’aretz said the proposal was one of the “cornerstones” of what the Prime Minister was prepared to offer in any resumed negotiations with the Palestinians. Mr. Sharon's plan envisaged the so-called “territorial continuity” for Palestinians in Gaza, where isolated settlements, which were not integrated in the “Gush Katif” block, were to be evacuated. These would include “Netzarim”, “Dugit”, “Elei Sinai”, “Nisanit”, “Kfar Darom” and “Morag”, which have been guarded by Israeli army units at a large cost and have been the focus of clashes. Mr. Sharon was expected to submit the proposal for the consideration of President Bush, whom he was going to meet in Washington on 20 March. (AFP, Ha’aretz – English Internet Edition, ITAR-TASS)
Speaking at a Labour Party meeting, Foreign Minister Peres said negotiations with the Palestinians would not be resumed, as long as the Palestinians continued calling on the United Nations to station observers in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. (XINHUA)
In an open letter to Secretary-General Kofi Annan, eight US Muslim groups called on the UN to establish an International Criminal Tribunal for Israel similar to those established to deal with crimes against humanity in the former Yugoslavia and in Rwanda. (US Newswire)
Ha’aretz reported that the Jerusalem City Council had last week rejected an appeal by Meretz Council Member Yosef (Pepe) Allu against the establishment of a new settlement in the Palestinian village of Abu Dis, close to the site designated for the Palestinian parliament building. The approved plan stipulated that the settlement would contain 200 housing units and would be established on private land owned by Jews and by the Jewish National Fund. On a separate matter, Attorney Danny Seidemann, representing the non-profit organization “For Jerusalem”, wrote to Prime Minister Sharon on 18 March, asking him to order Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert to remove from the agenda of the Planning and Construction Committee a plan for the building of another 2,830 housing units in the “Har Homa” settlement south of East Jerusalem. In response, according to Ha’aretz, the municipality spokesman stated that the Committee did not intend to erase the “Har Homa” plan from its agenda. (Ha’aretz – English Internet Edition)
The UN Security Council resumed its consideration of agenda item “The situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question”. Statements were made by representatives of 10 Member States, Palestine, two intergovernmental organizations and the Chairman of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People. (Journal of the United Nations, 20 March 2001 (No. 2001/53 – Part II))
The Islamic Development Bank (IDB) said in a statement that Arab officials meeting in Jeddah had allocated another US$92 million in aid to the PA, for projects focused on creating work opportunities in the health, education, agriculture and infrastructure sectors. IDB said a total US$205 million had so far been approved, of which $23 million has been transferred to the Palestinians. (Reuters)
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A Palestinian boy, Amin Ahmed, 13, was shot in the stomach by a settler after a group of schoolchildren threw stones at his car near Al-Sawiya village, south of Nablus, witnesses said. The boy was in a “stable” condition, officals at Nablus hospital said. Dozens of Palestinian youths, protesting against the closure of Bethlehem, came under fire after throwing stones at the IDF checkpoint at the southern entrance to the village of Al-Khader, near Bethlehem. Two of the youths were lightly injured by rubber bullets, witnesses said. Overnight, there was an exchange of fire between a Palestinian police position and an Israeli army patrol near the Beit Hanoun (Erez) border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Israel but no one was hurt, the Israeli army said. Israeli civilian bulldozers uprooted dozens of olive trees belonging to Palestinians of the Khirbet al-Karma village, south of Hebron, to clear the way for a road for settlers living in the “Otniel” settlement, witnesses said. (AFP, Reuters)
A spokeswoman for Jerusalem municipality said a committee had given the green light for the construction of another 2,832 homes at the “Har Homa” settlement. Construction, however, would not start for months because further approval was still required from the Interior Ministry. “We will fight this with all possible means”, PA Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo said in Gaza City, adding that “[a]s long as there are settlements, especially in Jerusalem, there will be fierce clashes between us and Israel”. Palestinian Council speaker Ahmed Qurei said, after meeting EU Middle East envoy Miguel Angel Moratinos in Ramallah, that there could be no trust and the Palestinians would not return to the negotiating table with Israel as long as settlement construction continued. The spokeswoman for the Jerusalem municipality said work on the first 2,300 “Har Homa” units, out of a total of 6,500, was at an “advanced stage”. Didi Remez, spokesman for Peace Now, described Jerusalem Mayor and Likud Party member Ehud Olmert as a “provocateur”. “Further expansion of Har Homa is a dangerous step which will make achievement of a peaceful solution for Jerusalem harder than it already is”, he told AFP, adding that “[c]ontractors have been reporting difficulty in marketing existing Har Homa housing and this makes it obvious that the only motivation for further building is political”. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the US did not think continued construction activity like this contributed to peace or stability and had urged both sides to refrain from unilateral actions. (AFP, Reuters)
UN Security Council members Bangladesh, Colombia, Jamaica, Mali, Mauritius, Singapore, and Tunisia put forward a draft resolution providing for the dispatch to the Occupied Palestinian Territory of a UN force of military and police observers, in order to bring an immediate end to the violence and excessive use of force. The Palestinians were expected to seek a Council vote on the draft resolution before the Arab League Summit on 27-28 March in Amman. (AFP, Reuters, XINHUA)
Four-year-old Palestinian Abdel Fatah Asbakhi, from Khan Yunis, died at the Rafah crossing, after the Israeli army repeatedly refused to let him cross from the Gaza Strip into Egypt for urgent heart surgery, despite the trip being coordinated with the Israeli authorities and the PA Health Ministry, relatives and medical officials said. A doctor, who declined to be named, said the Palestinians had initially sought permission for the boy to be treated for his heart problem in Israel, but their request had been refused and they had decided to send him to Egypt. (AFP)
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The Fact-Finding Committee led by former US senator George Mitchell resumed its work in the region and met with Foreign Minister Peres. Mr. Mitchell said Israeli officials had responded “fully and openly and frankly” to the questions posed by the Committee, adding that he expected the Committee to finish its report by mid-2001. Mr. Peres told journalists that the purpose of the Committee was not to lay blame on someone but to look for ways out of the situation. In its submission to the Committee, Israel reportedly maintained that the Palestinian intifadah was planned rather than a spontaneous response to then opposition leader Ariel Sharon’s visit to Al-Haram al-Sharif in late September 2000. Moreover, it said the Palestinian Authority “instigated, orchestrated and directed the violence”. (AFP, DPA, Reuters, XINHUA)
The Fact-Finding Committee Chairman George Mitchell met with Chairman Arafat over dinner at his Ramallah office. Mr. Mitchell called on both sides to "try urgently" to resume negotiations. Chairman Arafat said he briefed the Committee about the plight of the Palestinians. (AFP, DPA, Ha’aretz)
Israel refused to let a Belgian aircraft carrying humanitarian aid for the Palestinians land at Gaza International airport, Fayez Zeidan, head of the Palestinian Civil Aviation Authority, said. The aircraft had been loaded with medicines and ambulances donated by the government of Belgium to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, Mr. Zeidan told Voice of Palestine Radio. (DPA)
In Geneva, the three-member UN Inquiry Commission, which had visited the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel on 10-18 February, called for the immediate establishment of an "adequate and effective" international presence in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, saying it was beyond dispute that Israeli security forces had used "excessive and disproportionate force." In its report to the UN Human Rights Commission, the Inquiry Commission said there was "an urgent need" for the Israeli security forces to ensure that “great care is taken not to inflict injury on civilians not directly involved in hostile activities.” It added: “The Israeli Security Forces should not resort to the use of rubber-coated bullets and live ammunition except as a last resort”. “Even in life-threatening situations minimum force should be used against civilians.” The report also said that, in providing security to settlers, Israel could not resort to the “pre-emptive shooting of unarmed civilians” near settlements. (AFP)
Prime Minister Sharon had his first meeting with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. A statement from the UN spokesman's office said the Prime Minister briefed the Secretary-General on his recent visit to Washington and outlined his Government's policy concerning the Palestinians. On the subject of talks with the Palestinians, Mr. Sharon emphasized he would remain flexible, but would not compromise on the security of Israeli citizens. The Secretary-General raised the issue of settlements, especially the reported expansion of existing settlements, and Mr. Sharon responded that his policy, as publicly stated, was there would be no new settlements. The Secretary-General advised the Prime Minister to ease economic restrictions on the Palestinian Authority as a way to easing tensions.(AFP, XINHUA)
Israeli tanks fired four shells at a training base of a special unit for Chairman Arafat's bodyguards near the Jewish settlement of “Netzarim”, killing an officer, Lieutenant Kamil al-Jawad, 28, and seriously wounding two others, Palestinian sources said. (AFP)
The Bush Administration had decided to end CIA's role as a broker between Israelis and Palestinians on security issues, urging the two sides to cooperate directly, a senior administration official said. The decision came despite requests from top Palestinian officials for a continuation of the Agency's role in exchanging intelligence and quelling terrorism, which had begun on a regular basis in 1997. Limiting the CIA's involvement was part of a broader reappraisal by the Administration of the US approach to the Middle East conflict, which also included a more “hands-off” stance towards the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. (DPA, The Los Angeles Times)
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B'Tselem said in a report that Jewish settlers had killed at least six Palestinians since September. It said charges had not been brought against the settlers in at least two of those cases, even though international law required Israel to provide security to Palestinians in the Occupied Territory. The report further noted that the settlers were making good on their threats to take matters into their own hands if the army did not do enough to protect them against Palestinian violence. “B'Tselem urges the Israeli authorities to prevent attacks by settlers and other Israeli civilians against the lives and property of Palestinian residents of the occupied territories,” the report said. (Reuters)
Upon his return from the US, Prime Minister Sharon said the US Administration had backed his refusal to negotiate “under the pressure of terrorism and violence” and had agreed with the Israeli view that peace could be achieved through direct negotiations and should not be forced on the parties. (AFP, XINHUA)
After meeting Palestinian officials, George Mitchell said the Fact-Finding Committee would submit a report that established “fairly, impartially and honestly the different responsibilities” for the violence but cautioned that the Committee did not have “the power or the authority to solve all the problems”. PA Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo said the Committee should go beyond the symptom, which was violence, to identify the cause of the “disease”, which was military occupation. (AFP)
Speaking at a symposium about Israel’s worsening water crisis held in his Ministry, Israeli Minister of National Infrastructures Avigdor Lieberman said Israel might have difficulty supplying water to some Palestinian towns and Israeli settlements in the West Bank and to neighbouring Jordan this summer, due to the water shortage in the country, Israel Radio reported. Jenin, Hebron and the “Kiryat Arba” settlement in the West Bank ran the risk of being out of water, the radio quoted the Minister as saying. If the water level of the Sea of Galilee fell under 214 metres and 30 centimetres below sea-level, Israel would also have to make special arrangements in order to be able to continue supplying water to Jordan. Mr. Lieberman said he would present a plan to deal with the water crisis next week, which reportedly included importing water from Turkey. (DPA)
UN Security Council members UK, France, Norway and Ireland put forward to the Council a draft text calling for a resumption of contacts between Israel and the Palestinians at all levels, particularly in the field of security cooperation, and for an end to all closures of the Occupied Palestinian Territory. The text asked Israel to transfer to the PA revenue it had been withholding and expressed grave concern at Israel's recent decisions to expand the “Har Homa” settlement. The sponsors of the new text were reportedly in favour of dispatching UN military and police observers but knew the US would veto the proposal. US ambassador James Cunningham told reporters he would give the text careful consideration. (AFP, Reuters)
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Chairman Arafat’s advisor Nabil Abu Rudeineh said Mr. Arafat had overnight spoken over the telephone with Secretary of State Powell. The conversation, initiated by Secretary Powell, focused on the US role in the region and the need to pressure Israel to end the closure, Mr. Abu Rudeineh said. (AFP)
Osama Hassan Selim, 25, a Palestinian security officer, was killed in Deir al-Balah in the southern Gaza Strip near the “Kfar Darom” settlement, Palestinian medical sources said. At least 17 Palestinians were wounded by rubber bullets as demonstrators clashed with Israeli troops after Friday prayers near Ramallah, witnesses said. Israeli troops also fired at youths throwing stones near the Karni border crosing between Gaza and Israel, wounding three protesters, Palestinian witnesses and hospital staff said. Israeli police lined the streets of East Jerusalem and checked the documents of Palestinians trying to enter the walled Old City for the Friday prayers. (AFP, Reuters)
The Israeli Ministry of Housing and Construction had received approval from military authorities in the West Bank to build a new settlement, spokesman Kobi Bleich said. The settlement, to be called “Givaot”, would ultimately contain 6,000 dwellings and would be built in the “Gush Etzion” settlement block located southwest of Jerusalem and west of Bethlehem. As a first step, Mr. Bleich said, the Ministry intended to present a detailed plan for the construction of 2,000 units to be built between the settlements of “Betar” and “Allon Shevut”. He stressed that the settlement was still in its early stages and the process could take months or years. A spokesman for Prime Minister Sharon defended the plan but said nothing would be built before an agreement was reached with the Palestinians. Chairman Arafat’s adviser Nabil Abu Rudeineh strongly condemned the continuation of Israeli settlement activity, stated that peace and settlement-building were incompatible, and warned that the continuation of settlement activity would lead to a deterioration of the situation in the whole region, for which Israel would be held responsible. (AFP, DPA, XINHUA)
Walter Stocker, head of the office of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Jerusalem, told a news briefing in Geneva that Israel's decision not to allow the ICRC to bring trucks from Jordan meant that it had to transfer goods to other trucks and drivers on the Israeli side and again in Gaza, thus tripling costs and slowing aid intended for some 120 Palestinian families in the Gaza Strip whose homes have been demolished by Israeli forces during the intifadah and for 35,000 people in 60 West Bank villages, where joblessness had soared due to Israeli closures. He said Israel's closures of towns and villages breached international humanitarian law embodied in the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention, which stipulates that measures by occupying powers to restrict movement must be proportional. “Here, clearly, there are situations where it does effect the normal life of the population under occupation. This is disproportionate”, Mr. Stocker said, and he also complained of a rise in attacks against ambulances. (DPA, Reuters)
After meeting Chairman Arafat in Ramallah, Swiss Foreign Minister Joseph Deiss said there was no agreement so far among the parties to the 1949 Geneva Convention on holding a conference to examine Israeli actions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, as requested by the Palestinians. He said the results of the consultations on this issue had been encouraging but “actually not sufficient” for such a conference to be convened. Two more months of consultations were needed to establish if there was a consensus, Mr. Deiss added. (Reuters)
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At the end of their Summit in Stockholm, EU leaders promised to “seek a way forward” in securing peace, security and future prosperity in the Middle East. They mandated the EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana to remain in close touch with Middle East Governments and to report at the EU’s June Summit on how it could “play an enhanced role in promoting the resumption of the peace process”. A Summit communiqué called on Israel to lift its economic blockade of the Occupied Palestinian Territory and pay overdue revenues to the Palestinian Authority. To prevent an economic and institutional “collapse” in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, the EU leaders called on donors to urgently join them in pledging funds in support of the PA, which should adopt an austerity budget and take effective measures against corruption and towards more democratic transparency, the communiqué said. (AFP, DPA, Reuters)
Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian man during fighting near the Al-Aroub refugee camp on the outskirts of Hebron. (AFP, Reuters)
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According to a statement issued by the Office of Prime Minister Sharon after his meeting with the Fact-Finding Committee, the Prime Minister had told the Committee that violence was a strategic choice made by Chairman Arafat to obtain political objectives. He reportedly warned the Committee against producing a “balanced report”, that would equally apportion blame to the sides. Mr. Sharon believed that it was a mistake that the previous Israeli Government had agreed to the establishment of the Committee but he would cooperate. Committee spokesman Kelly Curie said Mr. Mitchell had told the Prime Minister that the Committee had no intention of acting as an international tribunal. Mr. Mitchell himself said the Committee has enjoyed “excellent cooperation” from both the Palestinians and Israelis. Following Mr. Mitchell’s departure from the region the same night, the next phase of the Committee’s work would be performed by its technical staff, which would gather information for another week. After that, the Committee would evaluate all the material and would begin its deliberations on the structure and content of its report, which was expected to be ready by the end of April or beginning of May. (AFP, Reuters, The Jerusalem Post – Internet Edition, XINHUA)
Prime Minister Sharon's diplomatic advisor Zalman Shoval told Israeli army radio that negotiations with the Palestinians could resume even without a complete halt to violence. “We are not talking about every youth who throws a stone or a Molotov cocktail”, said Mr. Shoval, in response to remarks made by Secretary of State Powell on 23 March to the effect that he did not believe violence should be reduced to zero to enable a resumption of negotiations. (AFP)
A Belgian plane landed at the Egyptian airport of El-Arish to deliver medical supplies for Palestinians across the border in the Gaza Strip, Egypt's MENA news agency said. PA Health Ministry official Zaki al-Hamawi told MENA that 20 tonnes of medical aid from the Belgian Government and people had landed at El-Arish airport, on the Mediterranean coast, and would be taken by land to Gaza via the Rafah crossing point. (AFP)
Hundreds of Palestinian workers would be allowed to enter Israel in the course of the following days to pick citrus fruit, a statement issued by the Israeli Defence Ministry said. It added that the workers should be over 40 years old and have children; the work would last for a month-and-a-half. (AFP)
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At least three Palestinians and one Israeli were reported wounded in clashes throughout the night in Hebron. Settlers seeking to avenge the killing of a 10-month baby girl, Shalhevet Pass, by a Palestinian sniper on 26 March, torched Palestinian offices and stormed the Palestinian hilltop district of Abu Sneinah that was allegedly the source of the attack. Waqf offices located in the centre of Hebron were destroyed along with a nearby wooden cabin, Palestinian witnesses said. Israeli radio reported that Palestinian houses and cars were vandalised in the Abu Sneinah area, which is under full Palestinian control. The IDF imposed a complete blockade around the city and a curfew on Palestinian residents in the Israeli-controlled sector. The army called on settlers not to take the law into their own hands and said security forces had been deployed to prevent any form of revenge. In the southern Gaza Strip, a Palestinian was shot by a live bullet fired by Israeli troops who also used tear gas, stun grenades and rubber bullets against some 2,000 demonstrators in Khan Yunis, witnesses said. (AFP, Jerusalem Post – Internet Edition)
The 13th Arab Summit opened in Amman with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the Middle East peace process figuring prominently on the agenda. Addressing the Summit, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan appealed for the conflicting sides to recognize each other's legitimate rights and take the path of peace instead of violence. He said Israel’s “excessively harsh response” towards and “collective punishment” of the Palestinians had fed the latter’s anger and despair, while the policy of “blockades and closures” had paralyzed the Palestinian economy and isolated most parts of the West Bank and Gaza Strip from the rest of the world. Mr. Annan urged an early resumption of peace talks, noting that the Palestinians should have the right to national independence and Israel should have the right to exist within internationally recognized borders. In his address to the Summit, Chairman Arafat said the Palestinian people were against “terrorism in all shapes and forms… including State-sponsored terrorism and aggression”. He accused Israel of stealing Palestinian land through settlement expansion, noting that Israel's goal was to try to destroy the Palestinians’ commitment to establishing a State with Jerusalem as its capital. The Palestinians, Chairman Arafat said, were ready to confront the wave of deadly violence by returning to the negotiating table with implementation of signed agreements but accused the Israeli army of putting into action a “comprehensive plan to enter our towns and areas, to assassinate our leaders and people and to kill the peace process”. Mr. Arafat asked for international protection for the Palestinian people and expressed the hope that the Summit would find a way to support the Palestinians, in accordance with the resolutions of the emergency Arab Summit in Cairo last October. (AFP, DPA, Reuters, XINHUA)
In a message to the Arab summit in Amman, President Putin called for the normalization of the situation around the Occupied Palestinian Territory through a lifting of the blockade and a resumption of the negotiating process on the basis of the Madrid principles, primarily UN Security Council resolutions 242 and 338, and progress made thus far. (ITAR-TASS, Reuters)
The UN Security Council resumed its consideration of agenda item “The situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question” and proceeded to vote on the draft resolution (S/2001/270) before it. The draft resolution, among other things, requested the Secretary-General “to consult the parties on immediate and substantive steps to implement this resolution and to report to the Council within one month of the adoption of this resolution” and expressed “the readiness of the Council to act upon receipt of the report to set up an appropriate mechanism to protect Palestinian civilians, including through the establishment of a United Nations observer force”. The draft received 9 votes in favour (Bangladesh, China, Colombia, Jamaica, Mali, Mauritius, Russia, Singapore and Tunisia), one against (USA) and 4 abstentions (France, Ireland, Norway and the UK); one member did not participate in the voting (Ukraine). The resolution was not adopted, owing to the negative vote of a permanent member of the Council. Statements were made by representatives of 10 Member States and Palestine. (Journal of the United Nations, 28 March 2001 (No. 2001/59 – Part II), UN Doc. S/2001/270)
Israeli troops shot dead 11-year-old Palestinian Mohammed Al-Darwish. A cousin said the boy was standing on the roof of his house in the village of Dura, south of Hebron, watching an exchange of fire between Palestinian gunmen and Israeli soldiers, when he was shot from the Israeli position. The Israeli army said it had no information on the death but confirmed that its soldiers had traded fire with Palestinian gunmen at the nearby Al-Fawwar refugee camp. (AFP, Reuters)
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Jewish settlers went on a rampage in Palestinian areas of Hebron overnight, burning Palestinian cars and local government property as gunfire echoed in the city. Settlers later tried again to enter Palestinian-ruled areas but were held back by the IDF and instead set fire to more Palestinian buildings in Israeli-ruled areas, witnesses said. (Reuters)
A nine-year-old Palestinian boy was killed and four other children seriously injured, when an unexploded Israeli shell they were playing with blew up in the Rafah refugee camp, near the Gaza Strip border with Egypt, witnesses and medical sources said. In the West Bank, a 60-year-old Palestinian woman died of asphyxiation after Israeli soldiers had fired tear gas at her house in the village of Jbah, near Jenin. (AFP, Reuters)
The IDF imposed a blockade on Qalqilya, after a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up earlier at a gas station southwest of the city, also killing two Israeli students and wounding four others. The blockade was imposed in order to locate those who assisted the bomber, the IDF said in a statement. (AFP, XINHUA)
Later in the day and following a meeting of Prime Minister Sharon’s inner security cabinet, Israeli helicopter gunships hit targets in the Gaza Strip and Ramallah, while tanks also shelled Ramallah. One member of Chairman Arafat's bodyguard Force 17 and a Palestinian woman were killed during the raids on Ramallah, hospital sources said. More than 60 Palestinians, most of them members of Force 17, were also wounded in the strikes on Ramallah and several areas of the Gaza Strip, especially Gaza City. Police in Ramallah said the man killed was hit in an attack on a Force 17 unit housed in mobile homes. The woman, identified as Suhad Sheikh, 30, was shot by machine-guns fired from a helicopter while she was walking in the village of Beitunia, southwest of Ramallah, medical sources said. The IDF said it had hit the Force 17 headquarters in Ramallah, as well as several targets in the Gaza Strip, including a weapons depot, a training camp and an armoured vehicle. Prime Minister Sharon’s spokesman Raanan Gissin said this was a warning and the Israeli side still hoped “the Palestinian Authority will come to its senses and we will be willing to negotiate peacefully because that is the only way that we can come to a real resolution of this conflict”. “This is a dangerous escalation and it destroys the last chances of peace”, Chairman Arafat’s adviser Nabil Abu Rudeineh stated. PA Cabinet Secretary-General Ahmad Abdel Rahman said this “unprecedented aggression” demonstrated the Israeli Government’s real intentions, which were to refuse the resumption of peace talks and “to make the Palestinians kneel through State terrorism”. (AFP, Reuters, XINHUA)
Arab leaders ended their Summit in Amman united in their support for the Palestinian uprising against Israel. The Summit condemned Israel's aggression against the Palestinians and decided to reactivate an Arab boycott of Israel. The leaders saluted the intifadah and supported the “legitimate Palestinian right to resist the occupation until they achieve their just national rights”, including an independent State with Jerusalem as its capital. They expressed their indignation at the previous day’s veto by the US at the Security Council and again called for an international force to protect the Palestinians. An Iraqi pledge of one billion euros (some US$900 million) to the Palestinians received backing from the Arab leaders, who also decided to look for ways to speed up the transfer of money from funds totalling US$1 billion pledged at the last Arab Summit in Cairo in October 2000. They decided to send US$240 million in emergency aid to the Palestinian Authority to help it cover its budget deficit. (AFP, Reuters)
At a news conference in Geneva, Inquiry Commission member Richard Falk said the establishment of an international monitoring presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory was “a moral and legal responsibility on the part of the United Nations” and expressed the disappointment of himself and his commission colleagues at the veto at the Security Council. In its report to the UN Commission on Human Rights the previous week, the Inquiry Commission had said Israel was guilty of widespread rights violations in the current conflict and had called for the establishment of an international presence to protect Palestinian civilians against Israeli security forces and settlers. Professor Falk said participation by youths and even children in confrontations with Israeli soldiers was “largely spontaneous… reflecting frustration, opposition to oppression, and a sense of humiliation after years of occupation”. He added that the position of former Israeli Prime Minister Barak and his successor Mr. Sharon in support of assassinations of Palestinian activists meant they bore “criminal responsibility” for the killings. (Reuters)
The White House said in a statement that President Bush was “deeply concerned about the escalation of violence in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza that has claimed the lives of a number of innocent people this week” and called on Palestinians and Israelis “to exercise restraint to calm the situation and set the foundation for a return to negotiations. The Palestinian Authority should speak out publicly against violence and terrorism, arrest the perpetrators of terrorist attacks, and resume security cooperation. The Government of Israel should exercise restraint, while taking steps to restore normalcy for the lives of the Palestinian people by easing closures and removing checkpoints”. (AFP, Reuters, US Newswire)
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Meeting late into the night, the Israeli security cabinet authorized Prime Minister Sharon, Defence Minister Ben-Eliezer and Foreign Minister Peres to order further action against Palestinians, not only in response to Palestinian attacks but also as pre-emptive measures. The cabinet justified the strikes against posts of the Force 17 unit, saying that PA officials “were found to be intensively involved in terrorism”. The bombings were ordered against “precise targets of officials linked to terrorism”, Mr. Sharon’s Office said in a statement. (AFP, Ha’aretz – English Internet Edition, Reuters)
The EU urged Israel and the Palestinians to exercise “maximum restraint” to prevent new bloodshed and deplored the rise in violence in recent days. “Events of the sort which have taken place during the last days will only aggravate the already very serious situation in the area”, the EU statement said, adding that “There is no military solution to the ongoing conflict. Only a resumed peace process can create the conditions for an improved security situation as a step towards normalization.” (Reuters)
The French Government criticized the Israeli helicopter raids on Palestinian targets in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, saying the “renewal of bombardments against Palestinian sites will certainly not contribute to an easing of tensions and the necessary search for a political solution” to the Middle East crisis. The French Foreign Ministry spokesman added that “it is a matter of urgency to de-escalate [the conflict] and to take up again a dialogue to put an end to the suffering of the region’s population”. On 28 March, the Foreign Ministry had condemned “the series of terrorist attacks in Israel and the Palestinian territories” and had called on both sides to put an end to “the cycle of violence”. (DPA)
The League of Arab States Secretary-General Esmat Abdel-Meguid strongly condemned the Israeli air raids against the Palestinians. In an interview with the Cairo-based Voice of the Arab, Mr. Abdel-Meguid expressed support for the intifadah and called on the Palestinians to continue their fight against the Jewish State. (XINHUA)
The Russian Foreign Ministry said that terrorism, which led to the death of innocent people and undermined the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, could not be justified, but “the use of mass force against Palestinian terrorists threatens to cross a dangerous line, beyond which political dialogues is impossible”. (AFP)
Israeli troops shot dead two Palestinian teenagers in the Gaza Strip, during a clash with protesters who hurled stones and petrol bombs at an IDF post near the Beit Hanoun (Erez) crossing point, Palestinian witnesses and medical sources said. Israeli forces also shot dead a member of the Palestinian security forces during an exchange of fire near the “Netzarim” settlement in the Gaza Strip. Tensions continued to run high in Hebron, where Israeli tanks fired shells at empty houses in the Abu Sneinah Palestinian neighbourhood, which overlooks the Jewish enclave. The IDF reinstituted the curfew in the Hebron area that had been lifted for several hours to allow Palestinians to buy food, a military source said. (AFP, The Jerusalem Post – Internet Edition, Reuters, XINHUA)
Israeli Army Radio reported that, for the first time in the last year and a half, the Israeli Government was expected to issue, within a few days, new tenders for construction in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. The radio said Housing and Construction Minister Natan Sharansky would market the tenders “according to the demand in existing settlements and without connection to the settlement map worked out in negotiations with the Palestinians”. (Ha’aretz – English Internet Edition)
At a press conference in Washington, President Bush said with regard to the situation in the Middle East that “The tragic cycle of incitement, provocation and violence has gone on far too long”, and called on both sides to “take important steps to calm the situation now”. He sent a “signal” to the Palestinians and Chairman Arafat to stop the violence and asked the Government of Israel to “exercise restraint in its military response, … take steps to restore normalcy to the lives of the Palestinian people by easing closures and removing checkpoints”. Mr. Bush said in his forthcoming meetings with President Mubarak and King Abdullah II he would seek their help in convincing Chairman Arafat to speak out to the Palestinians against violence. “Our goal is to encourage a series of reciprocal and parallel steps by both sides that will halt the escalation of violence, provide safety and security for civilians on both sides, and restore normalcy to the lives of everyone in the region”, President Bush said, at the same time reiterating that the US would “not try to force a peace settlement” and defending the recent US veto at the UN Security Council. Secretary of State Powell later called Chairman Arafat to convey Mr. Bush’s message. (AFP, Reuters)
The following statement was issued by the Spokesman for Secretary-General Kofi Annan:
(UN Press Release SG/SM/7757)
Speaking on the sidelines of an Arab Health Ministers meeting in Cairo, PA Health Minister Riyad Za’anoon said the Palestinian Authority had provided evidence to the Fact-Finding Committee of the illegal use by Israel of nerve gas, dumdum bullets, nail-like ammunition and ammunition believed to consist of depleted uranium. (Reuters)
Israel closed down an industrial zone on the Gaza Strip's northern border with Israel, following three days of riots and escalating violence between Palestinians and Israeli forces. The 4,000 Palestinians who worked in plants in the Erez industrial zone had been laid off, Israeli Radio reported. (DPA)
30
Israeli troops shot dead six Palestinians, five in Nablus and one in Ramallah, and wounded dozens more, during demonstrations throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including Jerusalem. The demonstrations, in which thousands of Palestinians participated, were marking “Land Day”, the commemoration of the killings by Israeli police of six Israeli Arabs during mass protests in 1976 against Israeli land expropriation policies. (AFP, Reuters, XINHUA)
Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Sun Yuxi said in response to questions in Beijing that China was “deeply concerned about and condemn[ed] Israel's attack on Palestine with heavy weaponry, which [had] killed Palestinian civilians”. “Violence can only deepen hatred and mistrust, which is unfavourable to the political settlement to the conflicts between Israel and Palestine” he added, appealing to the parties to exercise the utmost restraint and take resolute actions to appease violent conflicts and prevent the situation from getting even worse, in order to create conditions for restarting the peace process. (AFP, XINHUA)
Ahead of his address to the UN Commission on Human Rights in Geneva and in response to recent comments by President Bush, PA Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Nabil Shaath called on the US to return to its role as “the real sponsor of the peace process” and to take “the side of the victims for a change”. Mr. Shaath said he thought the US was missing the point that, “When you talk about the responsibility for violence you first start talking about the responsibility of the occupying [power] and then you talk about the responsibility of the occupied”. (Reuters)
Israeli opposition leader Yossi Sarid called on Prime Minister Sharon to immediately evacuate settlers from Hebron. “People that bite the hand that protects them, the hand of police officers and soldiers, cannot be considered balanced or normal people”, Mr. Sarid said, referring to the clashes in the past several days between Hebron's Jewish settlers trying to vandalize nearby Palestinian property and Israeli policemen trying to prevent them from doing so. “Whoever does not evacuate the Jews from there is bringing danger on himself, not just in the territories but in the entire region”, Mr. Sarid added, according to Ha'aretz. (XINHUA)
Eight Saudi trucks carrying medical supplies were permitted to enter the Gaza Strip, leaving 42 other vehicles, some of which had been stranded for over a month, at the Rafah border post, an Egyptian border official said, adding that the border post had run out of storage space “due to the slowness of Israeli procedures”. Of the 42 vehicles waiting for Israeli clearance, 16 were ambulances provided by Egypt, 16 were trucks from several Arab countries carrying Haj pilgrims and Palestinian workers’ belongings, and 10 were aid shipments. (Reuters)
In a statement carried by the official WAFA news agency, the Palestinian Authority condemned Israel's killing of six demonstrators commemorating “Land Day” as a “barbaric crime that shames humanity”. According to the statement, the Israeli army had brought in extra “tanks and artillery around cities under Palestinian autonomy to apply the Sharon plan to strike the Palestinian people and cause the greatest number of victims and amount of damage”. The PA said another 226 Palestinians had been wounded in the protests. (AFP)
Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo said the PA Cabinet had cancelled its session in Ramallah, after Israel had banned the passage of 12 Gazan ministers and members of the PLO Executive Committee who usually attend the meeting. An Israeli spokesman for the IDF-run Civil Administration in the West Bank and Gaza said Israel was not letting the Palestinian leadership pass through Israel because it promoted violence. (AFP, Reuters)
31
Hebron came under heavy IDF artillery and machine-gun fire overnight, the worst in the six months of violence, Palestinian police said. A total of 27 people were injured and dozens of houses were damaged in the shooting, which ran almost 12 hours from 4:30 pm on 30 March until 4:00 am on 31 March, Palestinian police said. One of those injured was in serious condition, while the others were moderately to lightly wounded, the police said. The overnight attacks on Hebron targeted various parts of the town in an “almost random way”, one witness said, describing the raid as the worst since the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation broke out late last September. Electricity was also cut off for about three hours during the attack, witnesses said. (AFP)
The PA Cabinet, meeting in Ramallah, without the participation of several Ministers, said it was “perplexed and shocked” by the US veto of a UN resolution that would have authorized international observers in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, calling it “a green light for [Israeli Government] aggression against the Palestinian people”. The Cabinet called for “an urgent mobilization by the international community to stop this dangerous Israeli aggression” and asked the US Administration “to continue its efforts to support the peace process and protect the Palestinian people and help the application of signed accords”. (AFP)
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Document Type: Chronology
Document Sources: Division for Palestinian Rights (DPR)
Subject: Intifadah II, Palestine question
Publication Date: 31/03/2001