|
Arafat Accuses Israel of "Exploiting" Situation to Reoccupy Territory
RAFAH, Gaza Strip, Sept 23 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Palestinian President Yasser Arafat Sunday accused Israel of "exploiting" the new international context to reoccupy autonomous Palestinian land in the southern Gaza Strip, news agencies reported.
On his way back from Jordan, Arafat told reporters, "Israelis are exploiting this period, which the world passes through to reoccupy areas A and B and our territory," Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
He was referring to a U.S. bid to forge an international anti-terrorism coalition in the wake of devastating terror attacks in New York and Washington on September 11th.
Since the attack on the U.S. on September 11th, Israel has increased its attacks on Palestinians, sustaining the deadliest violence on the Occupied Territories since the beginning of the Intifada, or uprising, against illegal Israeli occupation.
An Israeli army source reported that the two days immediately following the attack on the U.S. constituted the "largest number of simultaneous [Israeli] operations since the uprising started," stated an American Muslims for Jerusalem (AMJ) press release on Saturday.
Former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's testimony before Congress on Friday also attempted to capitalize on the attack on the U.S. His words supported those offered by Hebrew University's Ehud Sprinzak, who stated that, "the attack on America is the most important public relations act ever committed in our favor. Many of us feel vindicated by this."
Arafat also condemned the closure of Orient House and other Palestinian institutions he said had been agreed on by Israel in the 1993 Oslo accords, as well as at the 1991 talks in Madrid.
In August, Israel took over and closed down a dozen Palestinian institutions in illegally occupied East Jerusalem, including Orient House, the semi-official general headquarters of the Palestinian Authority (PA).
"We will meet again soon in Jerusalem, capital of the Palestinian state, whether they like it or not," said the angry Arafat.
We need "more national unity because our struggle is to be or not to be," Arafat said before heading to Khan Yunis.
He did not comment on his meeting with Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, which was slated for Sunday but was cancelled by Israel's hawkish prime minister Ariel Sharon at the last minute.
According to BBC's online news service Sharon gave instructions to his foreign minister not to go to the meeting Sunday because of the continuing violence and terrorism, said an Israeli official.
But the government has not ruled out a meeting later in the week, he went on to say.
The Peres-Arafat meeting had been arranged under intense international pressure, and was intended to allow the two sides to move back toward the peace proposals drawn up by an international committee last year, BBC added.
The Israeli occupation army made an incursion into Palestinian-controlled territory in the Gaza Strip late Saturday, Palestinian security forces said.
Two tanks entered the territory after a Palestinian mortar attack, Israeli army sources said.
According to a Palestinian official, the Israeli tanks "made an incursion of several hundred meters at Deir al-Balah, in autonomous Palestinian territory in the center of the Gaza Strip."
Palestinian security sources said the tanks emerged from Kfar Darom and were met with resistance from local people, who came out of their houses to stop them from proceeding any further.
Meanwhile, an Israeli court Sunday issued an arrest warrant for Marwan Barghuti, the head of Arafat's Fatah resistance movement in the West Bank, for allegedly organizing paramilitary groups, legal officials said.
|
