19 April 2004 | ||||||
News,
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Israel to Invest Millions in West
Bank
By RAVI NESSMAN JERUSALEM (AP - 19 April) - Israel will invest tens of millions of dollars in West Bank settlements even as it pulls out of the Gaza Strip and a few other settlements, Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has proposed removing all settlements in Gaza, as well as four in the West Bank, and rapidly completing a separation barrier Israel is building in the West Bank. Palestinians fear the move will strengthen Israel's hold over the rest of the West Bank, which they want as part of a future state.
Netanyahu announced his support for Sharon's plan Sunday, giving
it a crucial boost in an upcoming referendum among the 200,000
members of Sharon's hard-line Likud party.
Netanyahu told Israel Radio on
Monday that he decided to support
the plan after President Bush announced that Israel would not have
to absorb Palestinian refugees or evacuate major Israeli population
centers in the West Bank in any peace deal.
Netanyahu said he also was
satisfied with Sharon's commitment to
finish the barrier, which snakes into the West Bank in parts to
include some settlements, before the withdrawal begins.
Netanyahu reaffirmed Israel's
commitment to the settlements that
will fall on the ``Palestinian'' side of the barrier and said he
would approve tens of millions of dollars ``to invest in the
settlements beyond the main fence.''
Netanyahu's proposal would
contradict the U.S.-backed ``road
map'' peace plan, which requires Israel to freeze settlement
construction.
Sharon told the Cabinet on Sunday
that he would forge ahead with
his disengagement plan, while continuing to ``hit the terror
organizations and their leaders.''
As part of that campaign, Israel
on Saturday killed Hamas' Gaza
leader, Abdel Aziz Rantisi.
The Islamic militant group
threatened ``100 unique reprisals''
for the killing as hundreds of thousands of mourners flooded the
streets of Gaza in a show of strength and fury.
Hamas chose a replacement for
Rantisi on Sunday, but did not
disclose his name - a sign that Israel's campaign against the Hamas
leadership has put it on the defensive.
Israel killed Hamas founder Sheik
Ahmed Yassin last month.
Hamas' ability to retaliate
remained unclear. It has still not
managed to carry out a large-scale attack in the wake of Yassin's
killing.
The killing of Rantisi set off
demonstrations - some of them
violent - across Gaza and the West Bank, as well as in Arab
countries.
An Israeli was moderately injured
early Monday when Palestinian
militants fired two Qassam rockets at the Jewish settlement of
Nisanit in the northern Gaza Strip, the army said. Five rockets,
mortar shells and anti-tank missiles were fired at Gaza settlements
overnight but only the Nisanit attack caused a casualty, the army
said.
A Palestinian who approached a
checkpoint near Kissufim in Gaza
overnight was shot and killed, Palestinian security forces said.
The Israeli army also destroyed a house in an area near the Kfar
Darom settlement known for exchanges of fire, witnesses said. The
army did not immediately comment on either incident.
The military reported dozens of
minor incidents protesting
Rantisi's killing on Sunday, most of them involving Palestinians
throwing rocks and firebombs.
Late Sunday, police shot two
Israeli Arabs in Israel's northern
Galilee region, killing one and injuring the other, police said.
The police commander said the Arabs opened fire on a border police
patrol in a politically motivated attack.
A police commander in northern
Israel, Yaakov Borovsky, told
Israel Radio anti-Israeli incidents had increased in the area in
the past two months.
Many Israeli Arabs identify with
the Palestinians in the ongoing
violence, but they rarely attack Israeli security forces.
Israel rebuffed international
criticism for killing Rantisi,
including by several European countries. It said Rantisi - like
Yassin - was targeted because he directed bloody Hamas attacks
against Israelis and was planning more.
Many Palestinians held the United
States responsible for
Rantisi's death, pointing to Bush's statement last week in support
of Sharon's policies as evidence it was giving Israel free rein.
In Israel, Bush's support was seen
as an important boost that
could help Sharon win support his plan in the May 2 Likud
referendum. It also helped persuade Netanyahu and several other
influential Likud ministers to back the plan.
Bush's national security adviser,
Condoleezza Rice, denied that
Bush gave Sharon the go-ahead for the Rantisi killing during their
White House meeting last week.
She told ABC TV that Israel has
the right to defend itself, but
that it is ``extremely important that Israel take into
consideration the consequences of anything that it does.''
Netanyahu said an Israeli
withdrawal from Gaza - where 7,500
Israelis live in one-third the crowded territory and 1.3 million
Palestinians live in the rest - was inevitable.
``Most of the population in the
state of Israel wants to leave
the Gaza Strip. That's a fact. The question is what does a leader
do in such a situation?'' he said.
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