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Free Arafat Plan Takes Shape, Israelis, Palestinians Reject It
OCCUPIED RAMALLAH, West Bank, April 29 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – U.S. and British security experts were expected in Ramallah Monday, April 29, in the first step towards freeing besieged Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.
U.S. President George W. Bush proposed the plan to release Arafat from his battered headquarters here by placing six wanted Palestinian resistance activists sheltered with him in the custody of U.S. or British guards.
The Israeli cabinet, under heavy pressure from the Americans including two phone calls from Bush in two days, voted at a marathon meeting Sunday to approve the plan and Arafat announced his acceptance hours later, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
However, the U.S. proposal brought internal criticism in Israel, Israeli daily newspaper Yediot Ahranot quoted an Israeli analyst, Nahom Breniaa, as saying that besieging the Palestinian President was a mistake from the beginning. He said the hawkish Israeli premier can’t besiege Arafat forever and by that Arafat will appear that he is the victim and Israel is evil.
Alex Fishman, another Israeli analyst, described besieging Arafat as a “ridiculous act” that brought more “ridiculous” acts, referring to international interference in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the concept of the UN fact-finding mission to investigate Israel’s atrocities in the occupied territories, Ahranot said.
The UN Security Council was involved in a standoff with Israel, reaffirming its determination to send a fact-finding mission to the devastated Jenin refugee camp on the West Bank despite Israel's misgivings.
"The members of the Security Council after this briefing remain firm in their insistence on full implementation of Resolution 1405," council president Sergei Lavrov of Russia told reporters after members of the council met for two hours.
He indicated earlier Sunday, April 28, a breakthrough could come as early as Monday, saying "the members of the council expect a positive report from the secretary general on April 29, that is tomorrow."
Security experts from the U.S. and British embassies were due in Ramallah on Monday, to discuss technical details of transferring the six resistance activists wanted by Israel into international custody at a Palestinian prison, U.S. officials said.
Officials in London said a three-member British advance party was leaving for the Middle East. Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said the team would ensure conditions were safe for the U.S. and British supervisory wardens.
The deal to end Arafat's isolation was hailed as a potential breakthrough in efforts to ease tensions and restart talks on the 19-month-old Israeli aggression that has claimed more than 2,000 lives, the majority of them is Palestinians.
For its part, Palestinian resistance groups strongly refused the U.S. proposal. Doctor Maher Taha a leader of the People Frontier for Liberalizing Palestine, a resistance Palestinian movement, said Monday that the movement strongly rejects Bush’s proposal.
He added, “instead of proposing the solution of jailing Palestinian resistance activists, it is better for Bush to send international protection forces to the Palestinian people, who are facing extermination war by the hands of the Israeli forces”.
On the same note, a leader of the Fatah resistance movement in Nablus , Sheikh Ali Farag, said that the Palestinian authority agreed on Bush’s proposal because of the International pressure and specially from the U.S. itself.
He added that Fatah and the Palestinian people would resist the proposal if it affects the Palestinians unity or the Palestinian’s rights.
The Israeli cabinet on Sunday decided to withhold its approval for the UN team to visit Jenin, the scene of a nine days massacre committed by Israel’s occupation forces.
The Israelis are seeking a further redefinition of the mission's terms with officials saying their main concern was to avoid giving the UN team carte blanche to interview whomever it wants, AFP said.
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