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Arafat Calls For "Peace Of The Brave"
GAZA CITY, March 10 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat called Saturday on new Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to resume talks where they left off with his predecessor and pleaded for a "peace of the brave".
Stating that peace remains the "strategic choice" of the Palestinians, Arafat stressed the continued desire for an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.
Addressing the Palestinian parliament for the first time since deadly Israeli-Palestinian clashes broke out in late September, Arafat called on the hawkish Sharon to restart negotiations on the basis of "existing agreements and understandings."
"Our choice of peace is a strategic choice," Arafat said.
"We want a just peace, a peace of the brave, based on United Nations resolutions, that assures security and stability for our peoples and our region."
"The world has witnessed for nearly six months our willingness to make sacrifices to achieve our national rights and to protect our holy Islamic sites ... but the Palestinians have chosen the strategic option of peace," he said, hours after the five months of fighting claimed their 435th victim.
He also insisted that Israel's desire for security and the protection of Islamic holy sites are inseparable and renewed calls for a lifting of the Israeli blockade on the Palestinian territories and for international troops to be stationed in the territories.
Arafat called on Sharon to put an end to the "starvation and repression" of the Palestinian people.
He renewed calls for an independent state with Jerusalem as its capital, for respect of Muslim rights over the hotly disputed al-Aqsa mosque compound and environs, a site holy to both Muslims and Jews.
Arafat also reaffirmed the right of Palestinian refugees to return to former homes in what is now Israel.
"I address the Israeli people and their elected government to tell them I understand their need for security and that they need to take into account our rights to the sacred sites of Islam. One cannot separate security and those rights," he said.
"The siege and the closure [of the Palestinian territories] must stop," Arafat said. "The freezing of our funds must end. Exceptional measures and the Israeli military escalation must stop."
Earlier Saturday, a Palestinian official speculated that a summit between Arafat and Sharon was a "possibility," following an apparent easing of Sharon's hardline position after taking office Wednesday.
"We cannot say there's an agreement for such a meeting, but there are positive signs based on recent exchanges of letters between the two leaders, and there is a possibility of a meeting," Palestinian parliamentary affairs minister Nabil Amr said.
"We don't want such a meeting for its own sake, but so that it can move forward" in the peace process, Amr said.
He said a summit could be held after Israel lifts a punishing embargo imposed on Palestinian territories since the start of the uprising, and ends its aggression.
But Sharon spokesman Raanan Gissin denied any "efforts or contacts" was underway to arrange a summit.
Sharon, elected in a landslide a month ago, sent a letter to Arafat after taking power Wednesday saying he hoped to "find a way of establishing personal contacts soon to put an end to the cycle of bloodshed, violence and incitement to violence."
Sharon said he believed "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."
The statement marked an easing in the position of Sharon, who has long said he will not meet Arafat until bloody Israeli-Palestinian fighting ends.
The 435th victim of the fighting died Saturday morning, a Palestinian man who was killed instantly when he was hit during Israeli shooting and shelling at the Karni crossing point between the Gaza Strip and Israel.
It was the second incident in less than 24 hours. A Palestinian shepherd was shot and seriously injured by a Jewish settler near Sussia on Friday.
Some 80% of the victims of the fighting have been Palestinians.
Arabs despise Sharon, a former senior general and defense minister, in part, for orchestrating Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon.
Palestinians say their uprising was triggered by his visit in late September to a site in Jerusalem holy to both Muslims and Jews.
Negotiations will likely be strenuous at any potential summit, as Sharon was elected after ruling out many of the compromises proposed by his left-leaning predecessor Ehud Barak, who had offered the Palestinians some sovereignty in Jerusalem.
While Sharon has toned down his hardline stance since taking power, he has in the past rejected the dismantling of any Jewish settlements in the Palestinian territories or further Israeli army withdrawals.
Sharon has indicated that he is only prepared to hand the Palestinians 42% of the West Bank, and not the 95% offered by Barak.
Arafat reaffirmed his commitment to what doomed last-minute U.S.-brokered peace talks with the Barak government; Palestinian insistence that 3.7 million refugees have the right to return to homes in what is now Israel.
Rejecting criticism for not accepting Barak's offers, Arafat said it was Israel that "missed ... the chance to make peace."
"Was there an opportunity for peace and was it missed?" Arafat asked.
"Indeed, the chance to make peace was missed [by Israel]. We did everything possible for peace to be achieved, but we were confronted with proposals that were unacceptable on the Palestinian side, Muslim and Christian, as these proposals distanced us from United Nations resolutions and from the terms of reference" of the peace process.
In contrast, he said, "The Palestinian leadership and I spared no efforts to create conditions that were favorable for achieving peace."
Separately Saturday, the Israeli army said it has apologized to the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, Monsignor Michel Sabbah, after it blocked him from entering a Palestinian village to celebrate mass.
The responsible "soldiers and their superiors have personally offered their apologies before local officials of the church after having made their mistake… and have been reminded of the norms regulating how to treat members of the diplomatic corps," a military spokesman said.
Sabbah, who was carrying a diplomatic passport and a VIP card issued by Israel's religious affairs ministry, said he was stopped Friday at an army checkpoint outside the village of Ein Arik, near Ramallah in the West Bank.
"If such things happen to a senior church figure, what is life like for ordinary Palestinian citizens?" he asked in a statement.
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