OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, January 6 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Risking a diplomatic fall-out with Britain Monday, January 6, Israel banned Palestinian officials from attending a Middle East conference to be hosted in London next week by Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Israel was not invited to the conference, aimed at speeding up reforms in the Palestinian Authority (PA).

The meeting has been called to gather a number of Arab states as well as members of the so-called Quartet pushing for Middle East peace - the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and United States.

Press reports said Sharon was annoyed at the snub, as well as Blair’s plans for a separate meeting with Israeli opposition Labor leader Amram Mitzna, ahead of Israel’s January 28 general elections, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

Labor and other critics condemned the travel ban, accusing Sharon of encouraging “terrorism” by cracking down on “moderates” in the Palestinian camp.

The Israeli leaders want to link the Palestinians’ struggle to liberate their occupied land to “terrorism”, ignoring dozens of U.N. Security Council resolutions calling on the Jewish state, that came into existence in 1948 on the land of Palestine, to withdraw from the Arab territories occupied in 1967.

Netanyahu vs Straw

The ban brought Sharon’s hard-line Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu head to head with his British counterpart, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, who asked Israel to think again about the bar.

“The six million people who live in Israel and the three-and-a-half million people who live in parts of the occupied (Palestinian) territories can only live in peace if they are going to have a future.

“Therefore, I greatly regret the announcement” to ban Palestinians, he said.
Netanyahu said in a statement that “the Palestinian leadership does not need to meet abroad to close down suicide kindergarten camps to stop incitement to murder and to fight terrorism.”

“Until the Palestinian leadership does so, it must be given no quarter and no legitimacy in the free world.”

Observers and analysts, however, accuse Netanyahu and Sharon of “deliberately overlooking the daily aggressions perpetrated by the Israeli occupation forces against the Palestinians, the assassinations, house demolitions, as well as choking curfews that turn the Palestinians’ life into a continuous nightmare”, forcing them to hit back in any possible way.

Also, leaders in the region, notably Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, has repeatedly warned Israel against the dangers of cornering the Palestinians into hitting back, thus drowning the whole region in a vicious cycle of violence.

Other observers have warned time and again that Sharon has no political agenda, and extended their warns to the former general himself, accused of committing war crimes in several European countries, that his “atrocities against the Palestinians” will never grant the Israelis any sense of security.

The Sunday operation, according to such observers, is a clear evidence of this.

Former Labor ministers who quit the Sharon government last year deplored the move.

“Certainly we must fight terrorism with all our strength, which the army is doing, but this is a lamentable decision, which instead of reducing terrorism will encourage it further,” Matan Vilnai said.

Ephraim Sneh, for his part, expressed the fear of a worsening of relations with London.

Former foreign ministry head David Kimche commented, “The Tel Aviv attack is shocking and explains the government's angry reaction, but this reaction is nonetheless idiotic, because it will set the whole world against Israel.”

Kimche, a former senior official in the Mossad intelligence agency, compared it with last year’s “absurd” siege and virtual destruction of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s Ramallah headquarters.

“Here again, instead of weakening Arafat we are strengthening him by preventing a reform process,” he said.

Moshe Maoz, a professor at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University, added, “This decision shows that the government is incapable of envisaging any solution but a military one to the conflict.”

Palestinians Still Prepare for London Talks    

On the Palestinian front, Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo Monday said a delegation of Palestinian Authority (PA) officials was still preparing for talks in London despite the Israeli ban.

“This morning we sent the names of our delegation to the British government. We will continue our preparations despite the Israeli ban,” he told reporters in Ramallah.

Abed Rabbo said that Sunday evening’s attack, claimed by two Islamic resistance groups and an armed offshoot of Arafat’s Fatah movement, provided Sharon with an excuse to scotch the London talks.

“Sharon wants to use what happened yesterday to cover his real strategy of destroying Palestinian society and the Palestinian Authority.”

“The operation was very useful to Sharon,” he said, adding that the Palestinians would investigate who was behind it.

For his part, Palestinian Minister Saeb Erakat said the measures “are fanning the flames and will not give Israel security and stability”, adding, “On the contrary, they mean continued chaos and violence.”

He said the ban on Palestinians going to London “amounts to forbidding talks on an eventual resumption of the peace process” and called for immediate international intervention “to stop Israel’s actions and monitor an Israeli withdrawal from the Palestinian territories.”

For its part, Washington refused to criticize the Israeli decision, with a White House spokesman saying President George W. Bush believes “Israel has a right to defend itself in a variety of ways, but Israel needs to always be mindful of the consequences of its right to self-defense.”

Observers also lashed out at the U.S. blaming it on the deterioration in the Middle East, arguing that by always putting the blame on “the victim”, Washington encourages the aggressor party to go on in its practices of “self-defense”.