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Israel's Knesset OKs Gaza Pullout Plan
Tuesday, October 26, 2004
JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (search) scored a historic victory Tuesday when lawmakers approved his plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip (search) and parts of the West Bank next year.
It was the first time the parliament authorized the removal of Jewish settlements from lands the Palestinians claim for a state. The vote was 67-45, with seven abstentions, and marked a complete break from Sharon's long career as a champion of the settler movement.
The parliament has 120 members, but one legislator was absent due to illness.
Sharon won with the help of dovish opposition parties. Many members of his center-right coalition, as well as religious opposition parties, voted against him.
A key party in Sharon's coalition — the pro-settler National Religious Party — said Tuesday it will quit within two weeks if the parliament vote is not accompanied by a pledge to hold a national referendum in coming months.
Sharon entered parliament surrounded by 16 bodyguards, an unprecedented number. Outside, police cordoned off the building and restricted entry as thousands of settlers gathered in a nearby park to protest the plan. Protection for Sharon has been increased in recent weeks amid growing concern he could by attacked by right-wing extremists.
The withdrawal plan has bitterly divided the nation and solidified Sharon's transformation from longtime patron of the Jewish settlers to their No. 1 nemesis.
In other developments, a weakened Yasser Arafat (search) broke his Ramadan (search) fast at the urging of his doctors Tuesday and was undergoing more medical tests, aides said.
Arafat's aides have insisted the 75-year-old Palestinian leader is recovering from the flu. But Israeli officials speculated the Palestinian leader is suffering from a serious illness. Teams of Egyptian and Tunisian doctors have examined him in recent days.
In southern Gaza, Israeli troops withdrew from the Khan Younis (search) refugee camp, ending a two-day operation aimed at halting Palestinian mortar fire. Seventeen Palestinians were killed and nearly 100 others were wounded by army fire.
Tuesday's vote is the climax of months of confrontation over Sharon's "unilateral disengagement" plan, which has torn apart the ruling Likud Party and weakened his coalition government.
The vote also came on the nine-year anniversary, according to the Jewish calendar, of the assassination of former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin (search) by an extremist Jew opposed to his peace efforts.
On Monday, Sharon opened the parliament debate by defending his plan as the only way to secure Israel's future.
"This is a fateful moment for Israel," he declared in a speech that was repeatedly interrupted by hecklers.
"We have to do this, despite all the suffering involved. This will decrease hostility, and will lead us forward on the path to peace with the Palestinians."
Sharon told lawmakers that supporting the withdrawal, which will uproot 8,800 settlers from the Gaza Strip and four West Bank settlements, was the most difficult decision of his long career.
However, he said Israel does not want to rule over millions of Palestinians and suggested the settlers were unreasonable in their opposition.
Sharon even made conciliatory remarks toward the Palestinians, expressing regret for the plight of refugees displaced by fighting with Israel.
"This is the way of war. However, war is not inevitable and predestined," he said. "Even today, we regret the loss of innocent lives in your midst. Our way is not one of intentional killing."
Israeli commentators said Sharon's speech was remarkable, both for his gestures toward the Palestinians and his unprecedented criticism of settlers, whom he accused of suffering from a "messianic" complex.
"Even if tomorrow morning Ariel Sharon resigns from his position, or is deposed, or recants, this earthquake has already occurred. The rift has taken place. Nothing will ever be the same," columnist Ben Caspit wrote in the Maariv daily.
Tuesday's vote is only the first of several required before the plan can be implemented next year. Sharon's shaky government remains in danger of falling over other issues, including the budget.
The plan marks a dramatic transformation for the man who spent decades leading the effort to build up the settlements. As recently as early 2003, Sharon said the Gaza settlements are an essential part of Israel.
But after four years of devastating violence, Sharon believes the continued occupation of Gaza — where 8,200 Jewish settlers live amid 1.3 million Palestinians — is untenable.
Sharon says his plan will boost Israel's security. He also believes it will blunt international criticism of Israel and strengthen its hold over large parts of the West Bank and east Jerusalem — lands the Palestinians claim for a state.
Jewish settlers and hard-line lawmakers accuse Sharon of caving in to Palestinian violence and fear the withdrawal will be the first step in a larger pullback.
Sharon "is the architect and the originator of the settlement enterprise. So to talk like this to the people he sent, there's a name for it. It's a kind of treason," said Effie Eitam of the National Religious Party.
Several thousand settlers and their supporters demonstrated against Sharon in a park outside the Knesset, vowing to fight the withdrawal with a mixture of faith and defiance. Most were children from settlements, which canceled school Tuesday for the event.
Thousands of Sharon supporters demonstrated outside the Knesset on Monday night, singing songs, waving Israeli flags and holding signs reading "leave Gaza immediately."