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Israeli Reserve Chiefs Market Unilateral Withdrawal From Palestinian Territories
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Thousands of Israelis call on Israel to stop its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. |
JERUSALEM,
Feb. 19 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - A group of high-ranking Israeli
security officials will campaign for a unilateral withdrawal from the
Palestinian occupied territories, as pressure on hard-line Israeli leadership
gains momentum, news agencies reported.
The
campaign is based on a proposal by the Council for Peace and Security calling
for an immediate pullback from the Gaza Strip and most of the West Bank,
reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
It
envisages the dismantling of 40 Jewish settlements and the immediate
establishment of a Palestinian state.
It
also calls for the start of negotiations with the Palestinians, without the
precondition that violence first be stopped.
The
group includes 1,000 top-level reserve generals, colonels and officials from the
internal and external security agencies, Shin Bet and Mossad, reported BBC’s
online news service.
The
group is now launching a campaign, to include public appearances, bumper
stickers and a pamphlet entitled "Saying shalom to the Palestinians" -
shalom meaning both peace and farewell. It was first formulated last November.
The
campaign comes on the heels of a new campaign by Israel's peace movement, under
the slogan "Get out of the territories, get back to being ourselves. A
peace rally in Tel Aviv on Saturday drew thousands of demonstrators.
The
campaign is part of mounting criticism of Ariel Sharon's hard-line policy
towards the conflict with the Palestinians.
And,
with no political or military solution in sight, the strong support he has
enjoyed until now seems to be eroding, according to BBC.
News
of the proposal caught public attention during a week of Israeli attacks
and Palestinian retaliation with 15 people killed in less than 24 hours.
According
to the proposal, Israel would withdraw fully from all the Gaza Strip, with the
exception of a narrow security zone on the Egyptian border. All the settlements
there would be dismantled. A few isolate colonies in the West Bank also would be
shut down. In all, the 40 settlements are home to about 15 percent of the
settlers.
Military
redeployment would re-establish, to some degree, new borders in the West Bank,
and an independent Palestinian state would be created.
Jerusalem, unilaterally claimed by Israel as its eternal and undivided capital,
is not covered in any detail. The Palestinians want east Jerusalem as capital of
a future state, in conformity with UN resolutions concerned.
Council
Director General Shaul Givoli said the campaign aimed to build public consensus
about pulling out of the territories and some settlements.
With
the situation deteriorating, Israel's continued presence in the territories was
going to exact "a terrible price" for something that did not benefit
either side, he said.
"We
need to get out of the settlements that have no future and only cause riots,
loss and bloodshed on both sides. And for that, we need a consensus in public
opinion," he told AFP.
"Why
should Jews and Arabs die all the time when at the end of the day, it doesn't
bring us closer to a solution but takes us further away from one?"
The plan had the support of a number of politicians, but few would back it
publicly for fear of the political fallout, Givoli said.
Israeli
daily Ha’aretz said the group has spoken with a number of politicians, but the
hard-line right-wing Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has refused a meeting.
The
campaign comes scarcely a month after 52 reserve officers, or
"refuseniks", published a petition making public their refusal to
serve in the occupied territories.
"The
territories are not part of Israel, and the Jewish settlements that have been
established will eventually be dismantled ... we will not continue to fight for
them," said the petition, which has so far garnered 263 signatures.
Givoli
said the controversy surrounding the settlements was one of the factors that had
triggered the refuseniks issue, he said.
"The
fact that these reserve soldiers have to go and defend one or two settlers who
want to be stubborn and live there is not reasonable and it damages their
motivation to serve in the army," he said.
The
council also advocates starting immediate negotiations with the Palestinians,
which flies directly in the face of Sharon's categorical refusal to
"negotiate under fire".
"We
have to talk while the firing is still going on. The idea that we don't talk to
them until the terror (Israeli term for Palestinian resistance) is stopped
allows every single extreme group to hurt the possibility of talks. Without
talks there will not be an end to the violence," Givoli stressed.
But
he said there is little support for the proposals from the Palestinian side,
only fear that a unilateral Israeli withdrawal will leave them worse off.
"The
idea that we unilaterally pull out of the areas we don't want, and keep the ones
we do, really frightens them," he said.
The
Palestinians believe that a unilateral Israeli withdrawal without first coming
to an agreement would leave them with less than what they could get with an
agreement, he explained.
"They're
afraid the situation will stay like that forever," Givoli said.
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