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02-21-2005, 01:21 PM
Israel frees 500 Palestinian prisoners
Monday, February 21, 2005 Posted: 5:30 AM EST (1030 GMT)
http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2005/WORLD/meast/02/21/prisoners.freed.ap/story.prisoners.ap.jpg
Palestinian prisoners wave to journalists Monday.
JERUSALEM (AP) -- Israel freed 500 Palestinian prisoners in a good-will gesture Monday, a day after the government gave final approval to a pullout from Gaza and a revised route of the West Bank separation barrier that would encompass at least 6 percent of land claimed by the Palestinians for a future state.
With the historic Cabinet vote, Israel began charting its final borders, bypassing negotiations and angering the Palestinians.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said the decision to leave Gaza and four settlements in the northern West Bank was the hardest he ever made, but would ensure a better future for Israel.
Sharon signed an order saying Israeli civilians would have to leave the areas slated for evacuation by July 20. Those remaining would be removed by force over a period of two months.
Settler leaders have pledged not to leave voluntarily, and security officials are bracing for violent confrontations.
In the West Bank,Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas won the backing of his Fatah movement for a new 24-member Cabinet after a stormy debate, clearing the way for approval of the new ministers by parliament later Monday.
The release of Palestinian prisoners was one of the gestures Sharon agreed to at his summit with Abbas earlier this month in Egypt.
Convoys of buses carrying shackled inmates left Israel's desert prison camp of Ketziot around dawn Monday, and arrived at five drop-off points on the edges of the West Bank and Gaza Strip just before noon, military officials said. They were greeted by cheering crowds of relatives.
Those freed had not been involved in attacks on Israelis
Israel has promised to release another 400 prisoners within the next three months. A joint Israeli-Palestinian ministerial committee will decide which prisoners will be released in the second round. Israel is resisting Palestinian demands to free those serving long terms, including for attacks on Israelis.
With Sunday's Cabinet vote, an Israeli government agreed for the first time since capturing the West Bank and Gaza in the 1967 Mideast war to dismantle some of the dozens of Jewish settlements it has built there.
However, in approving the route of the West Bank barrier, Israel acted unilaterally on what was to be a key issue in peace talks with the Palestinians, and signaled it will keep a chunk of prime West Bank land close to Jerusalem, including two large Jewish settlement blocs, Maaleh Adumim and Gush Etzion.
Several Cabinet ministers acknowledged that while the barrier was ostensibly built as a security shield, its route would help determine Israel's final borders with a Palestinian state. Sharon has said he wants to keep large West Bank settlement blocs in any future peace deal with the Palestinians.
Abbas has demanded that construction of the barrier be stopped.
Sharon, a former settler patron and the key proponent of Jewish settlement expansion during most of his political career, said leaving Gaza and parts of the West Bank was difficult.
"In all my years of service I have faced hundreds, if not thousands of decisions, some of them matters of life or death, but the decision on the disengagement plan was for me the hardest of all," he said late Sunday.
The Gaza withdrawal won approval from 17 Cabinet ministers, including eight from the moderate Labor Party. Five ministers from Sharon's ruling Likud Party, led by Sharon rival Benjamin Netanyahu, voted against the plan.
The Cabinet must still approve each of four evacuation stages, but even opponents said those votes are just a formality.
Even so, Jewish settler leaders said they have not given up. Pinchas Wallerstein, one of the leaders of the council of Jewish settlements, called on supporters to begin "an aggressive and strong struggle," but not engage in violence.
In Gaza, Hamas spokesman Mushir al-Masri called the planned Israeli pullout "a result of the heroic resistance of our people."
The vote for the barrier route was almost unanimous, 20-1 with one abstention. Several Cabinet ministers acknowledged that the barrier has implications far beyond the original security concept.
"The route of the fence is significant in terms of future negotiations over Israel's borders," said minister Tzipi Livni.
Army planners had to reroute the barrier closer to the old cease-fire line that delineates the West Bank after the Israeli Supreme Court ordered changes to reduce hardships on Palestinians.
The new route leaves 6 percent to 7 percent of the territory in Israeli hands, said Vice Premier Shimon Peres, about one-third of what the original route would have taken.
Some 15,000 to 17,000 Palestinians will also end up on the Israeli side of the barrier, officials said. Also, tens of thousands of Israeli settlers would continue to live on the Palestinian side of the barrier, as there is no decision to remove those enclaves.
Palestinians objected but complained they had no leverage to stop the construction.
"Israel is creating facts on the ground in the West Bank," said Palestinian legislator Hanan Ashrawi. "Sharon wants payback in the West Bank for the disengagement from Gaza, particularly Jerusalem."
In the West Bank, Palestinian legislators from Abbas' Fatah movement agreed early Monday they would vote in favor of his new Cabinet, after a long debate in which many lawmakers demanded extensive changes.
Most prominent among the new faces in the 24-member lineup is Nasser Yousef, who becomes interior minister in charge of security forces. The late Yasser Arafat had resisted appointing Yousef, an ex-general, preferring to keep control of the forces. Yousef replaces Arafat crony Hakam Bilawi in the post.
Nasser al-Kidwa, Arafat's nephew, who has been serving as the Palestinian representative at the United Nations, takes over as foreign minister, replacing Nabil Shaath, who becomes deputy prime minister.
www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/02/21/prisoners.freed.ap/index.html
Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Monday, February 21, 2005 Posted: 5:30 AM EST (1030 GMT)
http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2005/WORLD/meast/02/21/prisoners.freed.ap/story.prisoners.ap.jpg
Palestinian prisoners wave to journalists Monday.
JERUSALEM (AP) -- Israel freed 500 Palestinian prisoners in a good-will gesture Monday, a day after the government gave final approval to a pullout from Gaza and a revised route of the West Bank separation barrier that would encompass at least 6 percent of land claimed by the Palestinians for a future state.
With the historic Cabinet vote, Israel began charting its final borders, bypassing negotiations and angering the Palestinians.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said the decision to leave Gaza and four settlements in the northern West Bank was the hardest he ever made, but would ensure a better future for Israel.
Sharon signed an order saying Israeli civilians would have to leave the areas slated for evacuation by July 20. Those remaining would be removed by force over a period of two months.
Settler leaders have pledged not to leave voluntarily, and security officials are bracing for violent confrontations.
In the West Bank,Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas won the backing of his Fatah movement for a new 24-member Cabinet after a stormy debate, clearing the way for approval of the new ministers by parliament later Monday.
The release of Palestinian prisoners was one of the gestures Sharon agreed to at his summit with Abbas earlier this month in Egypt.
Convoys of buses carrying shackled inmates left Israel's desert prison camp of Ketziot around dawn Monday, and arrived at five drop-off points on the edges of the West Bank and Gaza Strip just before noon, military officials said. They were greeted by cheering crowds of relatives.
Those freed had not been involved in attacks on Israelis
Israel has promised to release another 400 prisoners within the next three months. A joint Israeli-Palestinian ministerial committee will decide which prisoners will be released in the second round. Israel is resisting Palestinian demands to free those serving long terms, including for attacks on Israelis.
With Sunday's Cabinet vote, an Israeli government agreed for the first time since capturing the West Bank and Gaza in the 1967 Mideast war to dismantle some of the dozens of Jewish settlements it has built there.
However, in approving the route of the West Bank barrier, Israel acted unilaterally on what was to be a key issue in peace talks with the Palestinians, and signaled it will keep a chunk of prime West Bank land close to Jerusalem, including two large Jewish settlement blocs, Maaleh Adumim and Gush Etzion.
Several Cabinet ministers acknowledged that while the barrier was ostensibly built as a security shield, its route would help determine Israel's final borders with a Palestinian state. Sharon has said he wants to keep large West Bank settlement blocs in any future peace deal with the Palestinians.
Abbas has demanded that construction of the barrier be stopped.
Sharon, a former settler patron and the key proponent of Jewish settlement expansion during most of his political career, said leaving Gaza and parts of the West Bank was difficult.
"In all my years of service I have faced hundreds, if not thousands of decisions, some of them matters of life or death, but the decision on the disengagement plan was for me the hardest of all," he said late Sunday.
The Gaza withdrawal won approval from 17 Cabinet ministers, including eight from the moderate Labor Party. Five ministers from Sharon's ruling Likud Party, led by Sharon rival Benjamin Netanyahu, voted against the plan.
The Cabinet must still approve each of four evacuation stages, but even opponents said those votes are just a formality.
Even so, Jewish settler leaders said they have not given up. Pinchas Wallerstein, one of the leaders of the council of Jewish settlements, called on supporters to begin "an aggressive and strong struggle," but not engage in violence.
In Gaza, Hamas spokesman Mushir al-Masri called the planned Israeli pullout "a result of the heroic resistance of our people."
The vote for the barrier route was almost unanimous, 20-1 with one abstention. Several Cabinet ministers acknowledged that the barrier has implications far beyond the original security concept.
"The route of the fence is significant in terms of future negotiations over Israel's borders," said minister Tzipi Livni.
Army planners had to reroute the barrier closer to the old cease-fire line that delineates the West Bank after the Israeli Supreme Court ordered changes to reduce hardships on Palestinians.
The new route leaves 6 percent to 7 percent of the territory in Israeli hands, said Vice Premier Shimon Peres, about one-third of what the original route would have taken.
Some 15,000 to 17,000 Palestinians will also end up on the Israeli side of the barrier, officials said. Also, tens of thousands of Israeli settlers would continue to live on the Palestinian side of the barrier, as there is no decision to remove those enclaves.
Palestinians objected but complained they had no leverage to stop the construction.
"Israel is creating facts on the ground in the West Bank," said Palestinian legislator Hanan Ashrawi. "Sharon wants payback in the West Bank for the disengagement from Gaza, particularly Jerusalem."
In the West Bank, Palestinian legislators from Abbas' Fatah movement agreed early Monday they would vote in favor of his new Cabinet, after a long debate in which many lawmakers demanded extensive changes.
Most prominent among the new faces in the 24-member lineup is Nasser Yousef, who becomes interior minister in charge of security forces. The late Yasser Arafat had resisted appointing Yousef, an ex-general, preferring to keep control of the forces. Yousef replaces Arafat crony Hakam Bilawi in the post.
Nasser al-Kidwa, Arafat's nephew, who has been serving as the Palestinian representative at the United Nations, takes over as foreign minister, replacing Nabil Shaath, who becomes deputy prime minister.
www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/02/21/prisoners.freed.ap/index.html
Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.