|
Israel
Freezes Bethlehem Deal, Italy Refuses Receiving Deportees
 |
|
Nativity drama still on.
|
BETHLEHEM,
West Bank, May 7 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Israel held up
the deal to end Nativity Church siege as no country was willing to
accept the Palestinian deportees.
Earlier,
Palestinian and Israeli negotiators struck a deal to end the five-week
stand-off, involved in sending Palestinian activists into exile in
Italy.
Under
the deal, 13 activists - including 10 from Fatah and its subgroup, the
Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades - will be sent into exile.
Another
26 resistance activists were to be detained in Gaza under the
agreement, which Israel confirmed on Tuesday, reported Agence
France-Presse (AFP).
However,
the Italian Foreign Ministry said it was at present out of the
question for any of the Palestinians to be granted asylum in Italy,
according to BBC’s online news service.
An
Israeli army spokesman, Captain Jacob Dallal, said: "The
agreement is that they will go to another country, but right now we
don't have a country".
In
Washington, meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell telephoned
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi Tuesday trying to resolve
Italy's objections to the deal, a senior State Department official
said.
Powell
"talked to Berlusconi this morning," the official told AFP
on condition of anonymity. "The Church of Nativity situation was
the immediate reason for the call because the Italians are
involved."
The
official declined to give more details of the conversation but noted
that the call came after Italy rebuffed the U.S.-brokered proposal for
allowing 13 Palestinians holed up in the church to be exiled to its
territory.
On
the Palestinian side, however, the Bethlehem branch of Palestinian
President Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement Tuesday made a rare criticism
of their chief for his agreement to the exile part of the deal, AFP
reported.
In
a statement issued in Bethlehem, but which purported to represent all
local branches, Fatah begged their leader not to go through with what
they called "the worst agreement in Palestinian history."
It
said the move "legitimizes deportation and the occupation, which
is against all international laws."
Fatah
West Bank leader Hussein Al-Sheikh also blasted the deal in an
interview, with the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera satellite news channel.
"Our
movement rejects the expulsion abroad of Palestinians and we call on
the people under siege inside the basilica of the Nativity to reject
the agreement and to resist," Sheikh told Al-Jazeera.
"All
the members of the movement reject the agreement and call on President
Yasser Arafat not to agree to it or to approve it," he added.
On
the ground, Israeli forces set up barriers and metal detectors outside
the Church’s small main entrance, in preparation for those inside to
leave. Buses are standing by, BBC reported.
Italian
officials said they were ready to consider taking in the deportees,
but insisted they wanted to hear more details.
The
Italian Foreign Ministry said it had "never received any
information from the parties about the process of the negotiations,
nor were any requests advanced in the past few days from these
parties".
Another
possible sticking point is that there is now said to be a dispute
about the terms under which Palestinian activists in the church will
surrender their weapons.
They
reportedly want written assurances that any weapons turned over to the
Israelis will be returned after they leave Bethlehem.
The
Israeli Defense Minister, Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, said Israel had
already signed the deal and he expected the siege to be over
"within a few hours".
|
